As a special education community, let’s make sure our
legislators walk the talk by demanding that they back their words
with full funding.
The recent article detailing missing ancillary services for Morgan Hill Unified School District special education students – services like occupational therapy, adaptive physical education and speech therapy – showed just the tip of the iceberg.
What lies below the surface are growing tensions between a school district strapped for cash to pay for necessary but scarce services and parents frustrated by an increasingly adversarial process for delivering those services to their children.
The district, due in large part to unfunded mandates for special education, finds itself motivated to cut costs for special education. Parents of these children find themselves increasingly forced to fight for important services so their kids can get the free and appropriate education to which every American child is entitled.
While we understand the positions of both parties, we hope that they can put aside their differences to focus on their common enemies: legislators in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., who do not adequately fund special education.
It is important to our society that every child live up to his or her maximum potential. For kids with extra challenges – whether those challenges are autistic spectrum disorders, physical impairments, frail health or learning disabilities – that often means providing extra and often expensive services through special education.
We encourage parents of special education students to continue advocating on behalf of their children. But we encourage them, special education professionals and district officials to remember to look outside the district’s boundaries for opportunities to advocate for these children.
Let’s make sure our elected officials in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C. know that we won’t tolerate unfunded mandates. Let’s make sure they understand that when they don’t provide local school districts with the means to provide necessary special education services, they hurt all students and the greater community.
When they talk about free and appropriate education and No Child Left Behind, those shouldn’t be mere words. We must demand that our legislators back those words with budgetary actions.
As a special education community, let’s make sure our legislators walk the talk by demanding that they back their words with full funding.
