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When Tania Rivera’s son with autism ran out of school and into the street, no one noticed he was gone. Not the teacher or any school official. Rivera said she found out from another parent who saw him.
“It wasn’t safe for him, and I was in shock. Believe me, because he was in danger,” Rivera said. She didn’t know whether her son had hopped in a stranger’s car or gotten lost.
Although that incident happened more than a decade ago, Rivera’s experience reflects broader concerns across Los Angeles County, where a new parent-led survey finds that many families say their children with disabilities feel unsafe and unsupported at school.
The survey, published by SpEducational, a parent-led advocacy organization focused on special education, includes responses from 342 families across nearly 40 school districts in Los Angeles County, including more than 150 with children in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Fewer than half the families — 45% — said their child in special education often or always feels safe at school. Another 41% said they are dissatisfied with the services their child receives.
“I am sorry to say that the data is sobering. It’s lifted up a lot of concerns. It’s documented a lot of issues, a lot of structural issues in special education,” said Lisa Mosko Barros, the founder of SpEducational.
She said the findings didn’t surprise her, noting that many of the issues reflected in the survey are ones families have long experienced and shared over the years, including in her own family.
Accessing an IEP
For many parents like Mark Mockett, whose son is in 12th grade, the journey to secure and maintain accommodations has been an ongoing, uphill battle.
“We had to advocate for him and advocate for ourselves for the whole journey,” said Mockett, whose son has autism. “We had to push to get evaluated; push to get every accommodation we needed; push to get him the placement that we wanted.”
Securing an Individualized Education Plan, or IEP, is often a difficult and frustrating process for families. The survey found that only a quarter of respondents received the information they needed before an IEP meeting. In LAUSD, 24% of respondents had to wait more than a year for an evaluation, and Spanish speakers were twice as likely to experience that delay. LAUSD did not respond by EdSource’s deadline.
“We’ve had to almost reinvent the wheel all the time,” Mockett said.
The challenges are even greater for some families. Spanish-speaking households were four times less likely to receive materials, and low-income families were four times less likely to feel included in the planning process.
Fear of immigration enforcement can make it even harder for families to advocate for their children, Barros added.
In school
Even when an IEP is in place, families say implementation can be inconsistent. One parent, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said she constantly worried whether her daughter’s plan was being followed.
“Just because you have an IEP, it doesn’t mean it is being enforced,” she said. Her daughter, who has ataxia, a condition that involves poor muscle control, has sometimes needed increased support over the years. “There was always a worry of her being unable to enter or exit a room, including restrooms.”
At one school assembly, she said, her daughter collapsed.
Concerns about safety are widespread. In the survey, only 45% of families said their child “often or always feels safe” at school. Spanish-speaking families were also three times more likely to report that their child “never, or rarely, felt safe.”
Confidence in services is also low. More than half of LAUSD respondents said they were “not very” or “not at all” confident that their child was receiving appropriate support. Countywide, 41% of families reported dissatisfaction with the services provided to their child, and only 11% said their child received a legally required evaluation within 60 days.
“I wish I could say [having a mobility device and aide] was a magic fix,” the parent said. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t. We have continued to run into issues with the district providing the support that she is supposed to be receiving.”
For years, her daughter had always seen herself as “the other,” “the kid with the walker, the kid with the disability.” But after transferring schools multiple times, this year has finally been different.
“This is the first year being a mom of this child that I’ve ever been able to drop her off at school and feel confident that she is safe and comfortable,” the parent said. “And for that to have taken 10 years is mind-blowing.”
Broader impact
Although more than 80% of students with disabilities can achieve grade-level standards with proper support, Mockett said his son was steered away from a diploma and toward a certificate of completion.
But because of ongoing advocacy, he will graduate this spring and hopes to study filmmaking in college.
“The thing I’ve learned more than anything else … is learning to see the world through his eyes,” Mockett said. “I think that’s been the most interesting part of the journey and trying to understand how he views the world.”
But constantly pushing for support can take a toll — not just for the children, but their families. In the survey, 68% of families said advocating for their child has contributed to anxiety or depression. Nearly 40% experienced disruptions in their employment.
Barros said districts should work more closely with families and conduct their own surveys to better understand and respond to student needs.
It would “just move the needle so fast and far, because they would be actually collecting the data themselves, and reflecting back to the community what is actually happening,” Barros said. “That way, with that data, they can move forward in a very informed and concrete way.”
This story was originally published on EdSource.
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