The Special Education Community Advisory Committee presented its recommendations to the LBUSD board at its meeting Wednesday.
The Special Education Community Advisory Committee (CAC) presented a list of recommendations to improve the learning experiences of special education students at the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) during the board’s Wednesday meeting.
The CAC works with the district to support students with disabilities by sharing their concerns, experiences and needs and recommending specific program improvements as well as educating parents on student’s rights.
According to Katie Gonzalez, former CAC chair and LBUSD parent, the list of recommendations came from parent feedback submitted at a CAC workshop, which a subcommittee then parsed through to identify common themes.
“We’re passionate. We really want to improve, not just special education for disabled children, we want to improve the education experience for every LBUSD child,” Gonzalez said.
The CAC’s areas for recommendations included:
- Retention practice and policy
- Literacy
- Collaborative Co-Teaching
- Grading Equity
- Mental Health
Board member Erik Miller, who also has a daughter with a disability in the LBUSD, commended the CAC’s recommendations and requested district staff to present a full response. He asked that the report detail what the district can and can’t do to meet these recommendations and how doing so will affect campuses, staffing and the budget.
“Our students deserve nothing less than creating a more just, equitable and inclusive educational system,” Miller said. “With all due respect, it is time for us to start to step up.”
Ruben Chavez, a parent of two LBUSD students, asked the board to modify its retention policy and the implementation of it to specifically address students with disabilities by allowing parents, the Individualized Education Program or school team to decide whether or not to retain a student.
“Retention is harmful and out of line with current educational best practices in almost all other school districts,” Chavez said.
Chavez described the day his third-grade daughter received a retention notice as one of “the most stressful, demoralizing and depressing days as a parent.”
According to district data presented at the May 17 board meeting, almost 10,000 LBUSD students were retained between 2007 and 2019. However, the data also revealed that despite interventions, students who are retained don’t perform better than their peers who qualified for retention, but weren’t retained.
Chavez’s daughter did not end up retained thanks to meetings and calls with her IEP team, but he said the educational trauma remained.
“This policy causes harm to our students with diagnosed and undiagnosed learning disabilities,” Chavez said. “You’re literally altering the course of a child’s life in the most negative way and still not providing the support when they are retained.”
The CAC also recommended the district implement multi-system tiered support at all sites and refrain from calling retention an intervention.
Chavez also urged the board to implement research-based literacy practices to help students learn how to read. Some of these practices include training teachers and principals on the science of reading and early risk factors for dyslexia and other reading challenges.
“Our students deserve nothing less than creating a more just, equitable and inclusive educational system. With all due respect, it is time for us to start to step up.”
Erik Miller, LBUSD board member
CAC’s third recommendation was for the district to invest in professional development training for both general education teachers and special education staff to continue the implementation and expansion of the Collaborative Co-Teaching (CCT) model in LBUSD.
“The CCT program creates a new generation of general education students who know how to work with neurodiverse individuals. This will translate into future workplaces with real inclusion,” Gonzalez said.
The CAC also advocated for grading equity across the district by eliminating timed tests and having report cards highlight not just students’ challenges or areas for improvement, but also their strengths.
“We need to change the way our students are graded, as standardized tests are not a one-size-fits-all,” Gonzalez said. “Other methods need to be put into play to meet our kids where they are so they can reflect what they know.”
Gonzalez prefaced the CAC’s final recommendation by emphasizing the importance of mental health resources for students as they are still grappling with the socio-emotional toll of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CAC recommended expanding wellness centers to every elementary school in LBUSD and hiring more mental health professionals to bridge the counselor-to-student ratio gap.
“We are getting more students with emotional and mental health problems, we’re getting them younger and younger each year, and we are outnumbered. We need to do better,” Gonzalez said.
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