Fighting For Special Education

School District Tries To Silence The Voices Of SpEd Parents

The LAUSD forces the removal of a presentation of the proposed “Improving Special Education Within the LAUSD” resolution from the CAC agenda.

“I do share the concern of several of the officers that we are being told what to do, and specifically what not to do; and at the last minute, especially. [This is] highly unusual.”

– CAC Parliamentarian, Paul Robak

The California Education Code requires that school districts establish three committees; the Parent Advisory Committee (PAC), the District English Learner Advisory Committee (DELAC), and the Community Advisory Committee (CAC). The role of these committees is to provide feedback to the districts about their respective subject areas. For the CAC, this includes “the annual priorities addressed in the SELPA” (Special Education Local Plan Area) local plan. Importantly, this committee is also charged with advocating “for effective Special Education programs and services.”

The newly renamed Office of Student, Family, and Community Engagement (SFAC) is responsible for facilitating all three of these committees for the LAUSD. In doing so this office has to tread a fine line between ensuring that these panels represent and “provide an authentic parent voice[s]” while keeping their bosses at the top of the bureaucracy happy.

One of the responsibilities of SFAC is to ensure that the committees conform to the Greene Act, a law that California has to ensure that public agencies operate in full view of the public. It is, therefore, surprising that at the behest of the District’s Office of General Council and the Division of Special Education, the SFAC organized a last-minute meeting of the CAC’s Executive Committee. In violation of The Greene Act, this meeting was not open to the public, a notice was not…