From the Santa Monica Daily Press, Santa Monica Lookout News:

Parents in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District for the first time have an official special education parent handbook.

Producing such a document might seem like a simple task, but in this case it took an outside investigation, the withholding of half a million dollars in city funds, a school district shakeup and the departure of the school district’s superintendent and its head of special education to get the job done.

The first handbook was presented to parent activist Tricia Crane this week in a ceremony designed to honor her service and underscore the district’s newfound commitment to “Creating Unity through Collaboration” with parents of students with disabilities. The moment marked a profound turnabout for a community that earlier this year heard scores of parents testify that its special education department was pitting family against family, and creating a culture of coercion, secrecy and fear in which children’s needs went unmet.

For students of local government in general and special education in particular, Santa Monica’s special ed revolution offers one example of how parent advocates can bring about change — a process that took more than a decade here.

After repeated and unsuccessful attempts to gain the support of the local board of education, Ms. Crane carried parents’ complaints to the Santa Monica City Council, which decided to withhold its annual grant to the school district pending an independent audit of the parents’ claims. That audit substantiated parents’ allegations, including a charge that the district had required  them to sign confidentiality agreements — which parents called “gag orders” — in return for basic services for their children with disabilities.

Some very emotional public meetings ensued, with parents testifying that they had been lied to, bullied, intimidated and punished for advocating on behalf of their children. Rebecca Kennerly, the head of the district PTA council, publicly begged forgiveness for not having given credence to the parents’ complaints and called on the community to foster a culture of inclusion. An excerpt from her remarks:

Why didn’t I let myself believe this earlier? Why did it take an outside evaluation? Why didn’t I push harder — keep asking questions? I am truly heartsick over my passivity — my willingness to accept the party line — my personal culpability in perpetuating this “culture.” And it is clear that I am not alone in doing this.

By the time it was over, the confidentiality clauses had been dropped and both former superintendent Dianne Talarico and former head of special education Tim Walker had resigned.

This week’s event marked what promises to be the beginning of a collaboration among parents, the school district, the Santa Monica-Malibu PTA Council and the Special Education District Advisory Committee.

Earlier posts begin here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 9:12 pm and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, advocacy, families, special education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.