“Santa Ana Unified trustees voted late Tuesday to cut $13.5 million from the district’s budget as part of an effort to erase a projected deficit next school year,” according to the O.C. Register.
Parents and teachers said that “the cuts would lead to more lawsuits and inadequate service to special education students.”
I am not aware of any other Orange County school districts that are balancing their budgets on the backs of their special education students. Only in Santa Ana can a school board get away with this because parents are not well informed and are not vocal enough.
And I still have not seen ANY administrative budget cuts. The SAUSD has not fired any administrators nor have they cut their salaries. Instead they are going after the kids that need the most help. How very sad. And possibly illegal. I fully expect the SAUSD administration to get in trouble over these cuts. They rarely manage to do anything right…
Art, I am very well informed on the Sausd’s bad habits of getting rid of special ed kids. They just stop picking them up. I know all those snakey little I.E.P. teams, on chestnut and they know me.
I would cry, when my son would come home from school, with his little notes. I never wanted him to be on medications. 1st it was ritalin, because they said he had hyperactivity and that would allow him to concentrate. He was bouncing off the walls, he had chewed his tongue up it was raw and bleeding. They said it wasn’t strong enough and accused me of not giving it to him, they called for another iep and his dose was increased and they kept it at school with the nurse so she could give it to him.
His math teacher,just to get rid of him grabbed his arm and pushed him into a wall and had him suspended for assault. Another I.E.P. and he was sent to another school. This time it was McFadden Jr. High. Another I.E.P, and a behavior modification. Then I had seen a program on Maury Povich and realize what my son had, it was tourette’s syndrome. The girl explained it to Maury as, an uncontrolable urge to focus on someone who was pulling his ear and she would start pulling her ear uncontrollably. She explained her disease as not having any stop signs. She would say to her self don’t do it and she would do it no matter how embarrassing it was, if she seen someone wearing something wierd she would start thinking please don’t say it, she would laugh and make fun of the person. Her brothers also had the disorder. I seen him jump out of his chair and start jumping on the floor nod his head back and forth then would sit down again. I knew this is what my son had. I used to explain it to his teachers that he reminded me of a cat that would see a ball or a string and jump for it. I was afraid for him because, he could not control his verbal outbursts towards the teachers if he was told something they would think he was sarcastic or being disrespectful. The kids gave him the name blinky, due to the tics he would blink his eyes, constantly. I had taken him to see a neurologist at Choc’s he was diagnosed with TS, which is one of the 10 rarest disorder. He was given a clonidine patch,a blood pressure medication. He started school and the patch made him very drowsy. I was told by the Doctor just gently wake him up, because of his blood pressure, if he was startled awake he could have a heart attack. He came home from school one day, and he was crying and I said what happened? He said that the Kids were making fun of him because the special ed teacher had kissed him, and they were laughing at him, saying he had a girl friend. I said a teacher wouldn’t do that, he said mom she did the kids were making fun of me and she was laughing at me. I thought okay I’ll tell her something tomorrow. Well, I thought he would forget. He came home the next day with his T-Shirt soak n wet. I asked him what happened? He said he remembers jumping up and then seen flashes and passed out. The teacher told him get up, and stop faking! I was pissed I went to the school and talked to the principal and he called for the special ed teacher, and the p.e. teacher. I asked the p.e. teacher my son says that you kissed him in front of the kids when he was asleep. The principal said, she did not! Did you? She admitted that she had. Then I asked the p.e. teacher did you pour iced water down his back? She said yes because he was asleep. The nurse was there and started telling me that the clonidine would not make him sleep. He was not eating right and I didn’t send him to bed early enough. I said you are not going to turn this around on me. I am going to file a complaint against both of you with the principal and he has to report it. Another I.E.P. To make a long story short, my son was denied an education, under the leave no child behind act. He was abandoned by the school district when I sued low and behold the police had put him in jail, my son Justin was killed 3 days before the hearing, and I was just tired of arguing with the Orange County Department of Education, They had determined that they were not equipped to teach him, and he had a lot of time on his hands. I resent them for that. When he got out of jail, I was suppose to let them know so that they could teach him until he was 22 or graduate, But Rob Richardson or Roberson, would not return my calls. Now, if someone needs my help I go with them to the I.E.P’s and I advocate for them and demand their rights!
#1….Huh?
I’m so sorry.
I’ve been teaching in SAUSD nearly a decade now and agree with you that SAUSD does not care about the students they are supposed to serve.
SAUSD is totally disingenuous with their: “Failure is unacceptable” slogan. Obviously they accepted failure to save $$$ at your expense and continue to accept failure at the expense of hundreds of other families.
SAUSD Teacher,
The Case was Chris Castro VS. SAUSD, it was a learning experience for me, now I know what the policies and procedures are, Mandates & Regulations.
At least my other Boy that is a special ed student, has it made. I now know what is available to him and what to expect.
I’m sorry that I vented like this. I believe that they should not slash the education budget. As a matter of fact they should invest in more teachers and schools. These kids are our future, what happened to the money? I guess they want to cut the public schools to they can invest in private charters where the City makes money for more investments and securities. The goverment is now reaping what it has sowed and it will be worst in a few more years. I hope they accounted for that in the next 10-year planning period…
Ms. Martinez. No reason to apologize. I admit I was a little confused as you wrote your story but after several readings I think I understand some of what happened. Whatever you do keep helping other special ed parents to understand the rules and regulations. Most of what SAUSD gets away with is totally due to the lack of knowledge by the parents. I can not even conceive of a teacher kissing a student or pouring cold water on them without consequences. Please continue to relate your stories on the SAUSD thread over on the right border logo of SAUSD. People, especially parents, need to know these things.
Ms. Martinez –
Thank you for putting a face on the ugly practices
of SAUSD admins.
You’re a good momma lion protecting her young.
My, my…..I’m not surprised that the special ed. budget was hacked to pieces. I also took on the SAUSD to have my son deemed a special ed student. It took three years, $10,000 and a civil lawsuit before an IEP, a psychological report was agreed upon…and the district finally agreeing that my son was ‘adequately’ diagnosed with ADHD AND ODD. If the public only knew how much money is actually in the coffers for special ed students…parents who are jumping in hoops trying to have their children deemed to receive such services would be so furious….
SAUSD ignores the needs of students because saving money is more important than providing the best education possible for students. I have been a teacher for over 30 years. The last decade has been in SAUSD. I have worked in CUSD, TUSD, and SVUSD. In all those districts, if a teacher believes a student needs to be evaluated for possible special education or RSP services, the child is evaluated within a few weeks. Here in SAUSD, the process takes YEARS and still the student may never be evaluated. SAUSD doesn’t want to provide the best for each student just to save money. They know that one way to avoid students getting additional services is to never allow an evaluation (MDA) in the first place. So, they stonewall teachers seeking student evaluations and put many obstacles and paperwork problems on the teachers hoping the teachers will give up and go away. They get away with it because they know the parents are generally uneducated and uninformed about their rights and the rights of their children. In other districts, with knowledgeable parents, the District would be pressured or sued for failure to identify students with special needs. I have tried for years to be an advocate for the students and the parents to receive needed educational services. I have never been commended for seeking the best for the students, instead, I have been bullied by my principal and District officials only pretend to care.