School officials seeking closure to special ed saga
The future home of a half million dollars lying in limbo, and more importantly, whether a school district has fulfilled on promises made to a displeased City Council last year regarding transparency, could be determined tonight as educational and municipal officials meet face to face once again.
The council plans to discuss whether the public school district successfully followed through on a series of stipulations in order to receive a $530,000 increase in city aid, among them an independent assessment of special education and a halt on new unsolicited confidentiality agreements, the source of the controversy.
The conversation between city and school officials will take place more than three weeks after Lou Barber and Associates released its findings of a nearly four-month-long evaluation of the policies, practices and finances with special education in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, which has come under fire for an alleged culture of fear and secrecy surrounding settlement agreements.
Settlement agreements and confidentiality clauses are made after an impasse is reached in the negotiations for an Individualized Education Plan, which outlines the services a student receives during the year. The agreements were often thought to be a cost-savings alternative for the district to reaching a solution as opposed to a costly legal battle with parents. But in the past two years, many parents of special education students have spoken out about the confidentiality clauses, which they believe restricts them from talking to a third-party about the services in which their children received.
When it came time for the district to receive the half million dollar bump in the Master Facility Use Agreement — a contract where the cities provide revenue to the district in exchange for use of school facilities — some councilmembers wanted to hold back temporarily, concerned with the calls they received from parents.
During a meeting in June, the council imposed a series of conditions on the funds — the report must be completed and a moratorium had to be placed on confidentiality agreements, unless they were requested by the parent. The Board of Education imposed the moratorium in July.
“We the council asked them to get full transparency and that hasn’t been done yet, nor have I heard any commitment to that,” Mayor Herb Katz said on Monday. “We the city do not want to hold back from the students, it’s not our intent.”
The report by Lou Barber found that while settlement agreements and confidentiality clauses are not illegal, there was concern in the amount of such contracts the district had entered into — more than 140 in the past three years. Most of the school districts interviewed by the consultant found that they did use the settlement agreements, but sparingly.
The report also concluded that the district is well equipped with highly-qualified staff and provides a broad continuum of services to meet the needs of students with diverse disabilities.
“The report basically agrees with what the council was concerned about — there are secret deals that have been made and still some as we understand going on,” Katz said.
Superintendent Dianne Talarico is expected to present her preliminary draft response to the report, contained within it several action steps that include making the settlement agreements a last resort that would require the top school official’s approval.
Other action steps include decentralizing central staff and empowering school sites, providing workshops and briefings on special ed law for parents, and more training for special education staff.
But perhaps most importantly, Talarico, who presented the draft response to the school board last Thursday, pledged to create a culture of inclusion for all parents and students with special needs.
Talarico on Monday said she couldn’t speculate on what the outcome will be of tomorrow’s council meeting and whether the $530,000 increase will still be withheld from the district.
“I would like to bring closure to it, which may or may not happen tomorrow night,” Talarico said.
City Manager Lamont Ewell said he believes the district will need to take a three-pronged approach in order to successfully reach a resolution — fully adopt the best practices outlined in the consultant’s report, honor the council’s commitment that new settlement agreements would not be made unless requested by a parent; and incorporating any additional request that could be made by the council tonight.
“The question will be what the school district has done to... eliminate some practices that were highlighted as not being considered best practices,” Ewell said on Monday. “They will have to articulate what their plans are and by what period in time will they have those plans or changes incorporated into their practices.”
Jump hedline: School officials seeking closure to special ed saga
Suggested pullquote: “We the city do not want to hold back from the students, it’s not our intent.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 22, 2008. Read the original PDF.