Santa Monica-Malibu School Board drops confidentiality clauses
SMMUSD HDQTRS Confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements — the cause of much grief in the Santa Monica-Malibu school district’s special education program — is now a thing of the past.
With one vote, the Board of Education last week instituted a full moratorium on confidentiality clauses, a fixture roundly despised by parents in the special education program, school officials saying the district would be better off without them.
The ban was among a number of changes that will be made in the school district in response to an independent audit on special education, which found that despite its successes, there were some programmatic and financial red flags.
Following the resignation of Deputy Superintendent Tim Walker earlier this month, responsibilities among the district’s top leadership will be reorganized. Most notably, special education services will now fall under Chief Academic Officer Sally Chou.
The special education program has been the subject of criticism in the past year after parents began complaining about the practice of confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements, barring them from speaking to a third party about the services their child receives. The settlement agreements are entered into after there is a breakdown in the negotiations for the Individualized Education Plans and are seen as one way to avoid a costly legal battle.
But the negotiations have resulted in bitter feelings by some parents toward the school district, some claiming they felt forced to sign a settlement agreement because it was the only way their child would receive the services they thought were necessary, according to the audit by Lou Barber & Associates.
In order to assist in the settlement agreement process, a certified mediator will be contracted to resolve disputes that arise in the IEP negotiations, though school officials say they hope the meetings never reach the breaking point.
“We’re hoping that’s not the route we would take because we would like to use a more collaborative format to move forward,” Chou said during the school board meeting.
The board also authorized Superintendent Dianne Talarico to form a design committee that will look at creating new policies and procedures in the special education program, taking the lead of San Ramon Valley Unified School District which went through a similar ordeal.
Officials with the Northern California school district last week presented some of the changes they made in their special education program, including hiring a special needs liaison and forming a Special Education Design Committee, spending an entire school year reviewing policies.
“My concern is not talking settlement agreements, but talking about what the climate is going to be and how we frame special education going forward,” School Board member Barry Snell said.
The board first placed a moratorium on confidentiality clauses last summer, one of the few conditions placed on the district by the Santa Monica City Council in order for the district to receive a $500,000 increase in city funding. The council has not transferred the funds, a request made last month by the superintendent who said she feels the district has yet to meet those conditions.
Confidentiality clauses were still allowed in settlement agreements if requested by parents. A total of 37 settlement agreements have been entered into since the moratorium was enacted in July 2007, a total of 28 with a confidentiality clause requested by the parent. Nine settlement agreements were written without a confidentiality clause.
Several parents have claimed in the past few months that they were coerced into signing the confidentiality clauses.
Mike Matthews, the assistant superintendent for human resources, said he spoke to every staff member involved in the IEP meetings and found no evidence that the moratorium was violated. Matthews was among a number of school officials who suggested that the confidentiality clauses be eliminated all together.
“The concern I have is as long as we allow people to request those confidentiality clauses, it will always be called into question,” he said. “This district does not need questions being asked about our integrity.”
School Board member Kathy Wisnicki mentioned that in some cases the confidentiality clauses are considered to be best practices, as noted by an attorney who conducted the legal analysis for the special education audit. The audit found that the practice of settlement agreements and confidentiality clauses is legal and used by other school districts.
Paul Silvern, the chairman of the Financial Oversight Committee, said the board should not lose sight of the financial aspects of the program, a $23 million item on the district’s budget. He agreed that the confidentiality clauses should be eliminated.
“Based on budget trends we have seen, one cannot conclude that the strategy in place the last couple of years is saving you any money,” he said.
The program requires a general fund subsidy of $11.7 million a year, Silvern said.
“It is a very big and substantial part of the district budget at a time when the number of students serving has been declining,” Silvern said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 19, 2008. Read the original PDF.