The Suarez-Capdet family is one of the 75% struggling with regression during distance learning.

Speak UP, a parent organization in Los Angeles focused on educational equity, conducted a survey of more than 300 parents of students with disabilities in LAUSD. Our analysis indicates that most kids with disabilities are not getting their needs met through distance learning this fall.

“I’m disappointed that the needle hasn’t moved much since the spring, and we continue to see enormous learning loss that threatens to leave our most vulnerable students behind,” said Speak UP Founder and CEO Katie Braude.

Read the full survey report here. Some of the key findings include:

Approximately 76% of parents said their children with disabilities cannot learn and progress their skills effectively via distance learning.

74% of the parents surveyed reported their students exhibiting regressive behaviors or loss of skills while learning from home.

36% of students with Individualized Education Programs are not receiving the full set of services that LAUSD agreed to deliver in their IEPs, and 57% of parents indicated that the services they were receiving were not being delivered in a format suitable to their children’s needs. More than 12% reported receiving no services since August.

Over 60% of parents of kids with special needs do not feel well supported by their schools to implement successful at-home learning for their children with disabilities.

Approximately 59% of parents indicated they would be willing to send their children back to schools for one-to-one special education services if proper COVID-19 safety measures were in place, and 47% are willing to return for small group instruction.

80% feel unable to trust LAUSD to resolve any concerns about their children’s special needs.

The report is based on a survey conducted between Sept. 23 and Oct. 19 of 313 parents of students with disabilities at every grade level in LAUSD. Collectively, the students attend every school model in LAUSD, including traditional district schools, affiliated charters, independent charters, magnet schools, nonpublic schools contracted by the district, and LAUSD’s various special education centers and home hospitals. They also represent 181 separate schools in every LAUSD board and local district.

Speak UP’s Special Education Task Force developed the survey with input from several other organizations that also helped distribute the survey to parents: Families in Schools, Special Needs Network, Communities In Schools of Los Angeles and the California State Council on Developmental Disabilities.

“The findings in our survey speak to the failure of LAUSD to adequately serve the vast majority of our most vulnerable learners,” said Lisa Mosko, director of advocacy for special education at Speak UP. “Distance learning has had a devastating impact on students with special needs, and LAUSD needs to take immediate action to meet the needs of these kids by delivering the services they are guaranteed by federal law. The failure to do so could result in permanent harm to these children and will certainly open LAUSD up to massive legal liability. This has gone on for more than seven months, and it cannot continue.”

Despite the fact that LAUSD has had more than half a year since campuses closed to figure out how to serve its approximately 70,000 Special Education students, 61% of Special Education parents feel their schools are failing to meet their needs, indicating scant improvement since the spring.

One parent who participated in the recent survey said this of her child: “He can’t follow the class properly at all. He constantly gets lost in class and is depressed. He had someone sit with him and help him [in school] and right now all he has is speech and that’s the least of his problems. My son is suffering and feels like a failure.”

Speak UP is making several recommendations based on survey results. They include:

LAUSD must focus on providing more support to families of students with special needs.

While LAUSD and UTLA are offering voluntary 1:1 tutoring on campus, this does not include the delivery of special education services. This is despite the fact that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health in early September gave Los Angeles schools permission to reopen their campuses for small cohorts of kids with disabilities and English Learners. This must be rectified immediately.

The district needs to be more proactive about scheduling IEP meetings to provide parents with more clarity about their options for services and to formulate a plan (including a required Distance Learning Plan) that works for every student.

Instead of retroactively paying for arbitration and individual settlements - last school year alone, LAUSD spent over $22 million - LAUSD must proactively invest funds in supporting all special education stakeholders and provide training in compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and best practices.

LAUSD must proactively collaborate with and engage all parents. Otherwise the district will continue to fail its students and families, even beyond the current crisis.

Below are parents available for interviews:

Carla Suarez-Capdet is the parent of a child in kindergarten at Toluca Lake Elementary. Her son, Jordi, has autism and attends a special day class. When distance learning began this fall, he suffered severe behavioral regression that included attempts to injure himself and her. Her son’s IEP calls for a 1:1 aide, and even though the NPA (non public agency) provider that contracts with LAUSD agreed to allow the 1:1 aide to come to her home to help with distance learning, LAUSD is not allowing it. Instead, she and her husband have to rely on private insurance. They have a private behavioral therapist who comes to their home to assist with behaviors and sensory regulation during distance learning, but it takes both parents and the therapist to manage, and the results have been “discouraging.” Her son’s recent DIBELS assessment scores were disappointing. Carla would like her son to return to campus for 1:1 services, but LAUSD is not offering on-campus services. Instead, the district is offering him 30 minutes of after-school tutoring on campus provided by a rotating group of pool substitute teachers, who may have no special education training. “For our son, this isn’t a solution,” she said. “You’re putting a Band-Aid on a massive wound. It’s not enough for him.” Carla believes that LAUSD’s failure to provide the services guaranteed by her son’s IEP is a violation of federal law. Carla is available for interviews in English and Spanish.

Mayra Zamora is the parent of two kids with autism and ADHD, a 12-year-old son at Alexander Fleming Middle School in Lomita and a 14-year-old freshman at San Pedro High Gifted STEAM magnet. Her son in high school is not consistently getting services guaranteed by his IEP, including his 1:1 Behavior Intervention Implementation (BII) aide, who does not attend all of his Zoom classes. “He is definitely not able to learn effectively through distance learning,” she said. With the proper support, her son had managed to maintain a 3.5 GPA in middle school. This year, his grades have fallen to Ds and Fs. Because her son is immunocompromised and has medical issues, she doesn't want him to return to campus until a coronavirus vaccine is available. However, she would like the BII to come to her home to support her son. Her younger son also suffers from depression and has exhibited suicidal tendencies in the past. She said he has struggled with distance learning this fall, “feels alone,” and “has given up on middle school.” Mayra is available for interviews in English and Spanish.

Adriane Ransom is the parent of a 5-year-old child, George, who is enrolled at Palisades Charter Elementary, a district affiliated charter school. George has a rare genetic disorder called ADNP syndrome, which causes developmental delays, apraxia of speech and motor planning deficits. He also has severe visual impairment. “He cannot look at the screen for a very long time,” she said. “For him to attend visually, it’s seconds to a couple of minutes, and we don’t know what he is seeing because he communicates without verbal language.” George has not experienced any progression of skills from distance learning, and he started exhibiting behaviors she had not seen in a long time, including biting and hair pulling. He also tries to escape from his chair during distance learning.

Fortunately, Adriane has worked as an occupational therapist for 20 years and operates her own occupational therapy (OT) practice. She is able to privately pay for the services her son needs. “I have an OT work with him every day, and a speech therapist three times a week. I pay for private 1:1 speech and private 1:1 OT in person. I have the ability and knowledge to get him things he needs outside of the school. I’m very fortunate I don’t have to solely rely on LAUSD for his progress. We attempted. It was horrendous. His speech therapist would show him videos. It was a ridiculous waste of time.” Asking her son to be “on a screen for this length of time was just not appropriate,” and the school never provided the BII guaranteed in his IEP, so she “basically quit” and manages his education herself.

As for communication from the district, “I receive the occasional email, sometimes with broken links. It’s kind of useless.” The school made it clear that her son was “not welcome” in the general education class she wanted him to attend with typical peers. Her son was supposed to be assessed in March, but she has received no information from the district indicating they are now offering assessments. “It’s complete negligence all under the guise of COVID,” she said. “I have filed for due process. They don’t want children with disabilities because they require effort.”

Alberta Moore has a 15-year-old son in 10th grade at Dorsey High in South L.A. Her son, who has high-functioning autism, has received inconsistent services that are not scheduled at a regular time. On one occasion, she received an email late at night to schedule a session for the following day, and sessions are sometimes scheduled at times that interfere with important class work. Her son is able to manage online learning largely because Alberta is retired and available to sit next to him and help him all day long. With seven classes and a schedule that varies week by week, it’s difficult for her child to manage his online learning independently. “I’m his personal assistant,” she said. “It is a lot, and heaven forbid I get caught up in something.” Her adult daughter, who works with kids with special needs, also helps, and Alberta supplements her son’s LAUSD learning with community college courses. “Because of inadequacies, I go outside the school,” she said.

Speak UP (http://speakupparents.org/) is a Los Angeles-based grassroots organization of parents who want a more powerful voice in education policy. For more information, please contact Jenny Hontz at jenny@speakupparents.org.