COVID-19 And Education

Will Our Most Vulnerable Students Continue To Be Left Behind?

With the post-Christmas COVID-19 surge finally retreating, some LAUSD students will begin returning to school. What about those who can’t?

Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

“LAUSD spokeswoman Barbara Jones declined to answer questions about how the nation’s second-largest school district is addressing the needs of its special education students.”

- Los Angeles Times

In normal circumstances, parents have a hard time negotiating the LAUSD’s vast bureaucracy when advocating for their children with special education needs. In a system designed to discourage the use of high-cost but effective services, parents in this situation often feel that they are adversaries to a district that is supposed to be their partner in helping students reach their highest potential. On top of the extraordinary stress involved in raising a child with mental or physical challenges, we must constantly deal with the self-doubt that we could have done more or that a different choice about education programs would have brought better results. If we had only fought just a…