School Districts Fail to Respond to Questions Regarding Most Vulnerable Population
“Stalled progress,” “loss of skills,” “no semblance of education,” “helpless,” “frustration,” “huge regression,” “inconsistent,” ”not sufficient,” are just a few terms parents, teachers, advocates, and therapists used in a recent front-page Los Angeles Times article to describe special education services provided to California’s 760,000 students with disabilities since COVID-19 shutdown schools. Even LAUSD, in its own report, documented that only about half of its middle and high school students enrolled in special education were participating once a week in their computer-based distance learning platform, a percentage much lower compared to students without disabilities. When the Times reached out to two Southern California school districts to discuss addressing the needs of special education students, neither district responded.
