Advocates demand state end improper use of force on special ed students
A week after a video showed a 9-year-old boy in special education being held aloft as a teacher’s aide slapped his face and onlookers laughed, three advocacy groups issued a demand letter to the California Department of Education on Friday calling on the state to take “quick and decisive” action to eliminate the improper use of force on students with disabilities in classrooms across the state.
The behavior shown in the video is “only the latest example of physical abuse” of students who receive special education services in segregated classrooms and schools, including at Tobinworld II school in Antioch where the incident last week occurred, says the letter from the advocacy groups Disability Rights California, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The letter calls for sweeping changes in the state’s oversight of behavioral practices in special education classrooms, including a resumption of statewide data collection to track the use of force on special education students, known as restraint, and the practice of isolating students in rooms they can’t leave, known as seclusion. The letter also calls for monitoring the training of special education staff to ensure they have the skills to manage behavior in a positive way.
“We want this letter to be a wake-up call to the state,” said Maggie Roberts, an attorney at Disability Rights California, the state’s watchdog group. If the state cannot act, an independent monitor should be appointed, the advocacy groups said.
“Despite formal complaints, media coverage and multiple lawsuits — costing our public schools millions of dollars — the California Department of Education has no proper system to monitor the treatment of students with disabilities, investigate and resolve complaints, or provide meaningful technical assistance — all steps that are mandated by federal and state law,” the letter states.
California school districts in recent years have paid amounts from $800,000 to $1.25 million per child to settle cases, but the lawsuits have not prompted Advocates demand state end improper use of force on special ed students | EdSource:
