Equitably serving students who are identified as eligible for special education is an urgent issue facing today’s school district and systems leaders. What is intended by the law is seldom what happens in practice and as a result, students of color and emergent bilinguals are most frequently identified as in need of special education, and placed in more segregated settings due to lack of academic progress, or for reasons that may not be directly related to a disability. Upon closer examination, what initially emerges as a special education equity issue may be traced back to general education practices, and this can present an opportunity to create systems change. For these reasons, it is critical to analyze special education equity issues holistically, and to examine spaces for improvement of general education systems that have implications for serving the most marginalized students more equitably.
Key Activites
Over the course of this spring, participants will select an equity issue from their own context that has typically been cast as a “special education issue” and analyze it in order to identify the opportunities for bettering the system as a whole, for all students, present and future.
Participants will engage in data collection, consultancy, and dedicated reflection and planning time to explore their equity issue, develop potential solutions and test these out alongside other bay area educational leaders. This Community of Practice presents the opportunity to explore the connections between special education research, law, and compliance and their implications for improving system-wide practices to more equitably serve marginalized students, prevent overidentification, and create shared responsibility for the outcomes of students who are identified for special education services.
Specifically, the following activities will address the equity issues occurring in Special Education, Universal Access, Disproportionality, and Assessment Practices:
-
Identify an equity issue and make connections to reframe special education law and compliance for general education improvement
-
Use the dimensions of systems change to understand how a special education equity issue can be used to improve educational access for all students
-
Explore root causes of an equity issue and develop possible solutions
-
Consultancy and planning to identify appropriate resources and tools for implementation of a change to impact special education and general education practices
Facilitators
Melissa Virrueta-Ayala, 504 Program Supervisor, Berkeley High School. She is a second year student in the Leaders for Equity and Democracy (LEAD), Ed.D. program at UC Berkeley. Her research interests include antiracism and racial equity in the education, training, and certification of school psychologists. Melissa oversees the 504 Program, Intervention Program and Coordination of Services Team at Berkeley High School in the Berkeley Unified School District. She has previously served as a bilingual school psychologist, a district level special education coordinator and a site administrator. As a graduate student and school leader, Melissa is committed to working towards disrupting the notion of difference as disability and supporting equitable access for all students in education systems.
Session Calendar
This program is offered in a virtual and synchronous format.
Schedule:
- Wednesday November 8, 2023, 4–6:30 pm
- Wednesday November 15, 2023, 4–6:30 pm
- Wednesday November 29, 2023, 4–6:30 pm
- Wednesday December 6, 2023, 4–6:30 pm
- Wednesday December 13, 2023, 4–6:30 pm
Who Should Participate?
Systems/district leaders; special education and student intervention. Teams are welcome.
Cost
21CSLA programs are offered at no cost to participants employed in Title II districts and schools in six Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Solano.
Click here to see schools served by the 21CSLA grant. If you do not see your school, District or Charter System, please contact us at 21csla_alamedaregional@berkeley.edu
Questions?
Contact us at 21csla_alamedaregional@berkeley.edu.