LAUSD Sanctioned for Special Education Failures During COVID
LAUSD is the second-largest school district in the United States. The district is run by a large and unwieldy bureaucracy that has long been hampered by poor management and inefficient distribution of funds.
Unfortunately, problems with LAUSD management were exacerbated by the pandemic. LAUSD has over 600,000 students, and they were badly served by the district’s inadequate COVID policies and poorly administered distance learning.
Students with disabilities and their families were disproportionately impacted by the district’s COVID regulation failures. The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights has found that LAUSD failed to provide Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) for students with special needs during remote learning. LAUSD has reached a resolution agreement with the Department of Education (DOE) that requires the district to take several steps to resolve these problems.
The DOE Recommended Measures To Assist Students with Special Needs During COVID
LAUSD’s dismal response to the pandemic highlights its ongoing difficulties in meeting the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a federal law that supports special education and related services for children with disabilities.
During the pandemic, the DOE encouraged school districts across the country to continue to provide a full array of special educational services. The DOE distributed a Return to School Roadmap reaffirming the need for districts to identify required services and provide support and program modifications necessary to make IEP progress.
The DOE Roadmap instructed IEP teams to focus on the individual needs of a child, the services received, and how additional services can support children to make progress in light of each child’s unique circumstances. Strategies for achieving this include reading interventions, assistive technology, additional physical therapy, an extended school year, and other proactive measures.
The DOE Roadmap recommended implementing actions that support special education services in relation to the following concerns:
- Timing of services
- Frequency of services
- Location of services
- Transportation
- Instructional methodology
How LAUSD Failed Students During COVID
On January 12, 2021, the DOE Office for Civil Rights launched an investigation of LAUSD in regard to how the district was addressing the provision of FAPE for students with disabilities since March 2020.
The DOE investigation found that the district:
- Failed to provide required IEP services during remote learning
- Failed to adequately track special education services
- Failed to deliver compensatory services
- Failed to enact a plan to adequately remedy the instances when FAPE was not provided for students with disabilities
LAUSD Agreed To Make Changes To Improve Outcomes for Students with Special Needs
On April 27, 2022, LAUSD signed a resolution agreement with the DOE Office for Civil Rights. Under the agreement, LAUSD agreed to do the following:
- Increase the special education budget
- Address deficiencies that were exacerbated by COVID school closures
- Conduct IEP and 504 meetings to assess whether students’ needs are being met
- Appoint a designated person to oversee the plan’s implementation
- Increase funding for transportation
- Address the lack of translation and native language-speaking staff
- Expand staff training sessions
- Hire additional special education teachers
- Document and report progress and related data to federal officials
Are You and Your Child with Special Needs Getting the Help You Need?
The LAUSD special education lawyers at Woodsmall Law Group, PC. are committed to serving children and adults with learning disabilities and their parents in Los Angeles County, focusing on the San Gabriel Valley. Our attorneys have been helping families make the most out of their educational opportunities for over 17 years.
If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s placement or the services they are receiving, please call us at (626) 440-0028 to schedule a free initial consultation. We speak English and Spanish.