Going to School

This week's blog post is based on a a movie entitled Going to School. The short movie focused on the LA Unified School District and the law suit against them for non compliance with many components of the IDEA law. IEP’s were not being followed or even created, special education services were not being provided in a timely manner, nor were children being identified for these services (Here is one girl's story of here experience in the LA Unified School District receiving special education services). Many students were segregated into special schools instead of their neighborhood schools providing the services the students were entitled to by law.

The movie interviewed many different parents, students, teachers, and special educators within the school district to get their take on how special education services are handled in this district and the struggles that families and students have gone through in trying to get their children the services they need in order to have access to an equal education.

One mother became a huge advocate for her son's education. She was told when first enrolling him that he would attend a special school for children with disabilities, but right away she disagreed and said that she wanted her son to attend the school he would attend if he did not have any disabilities.  She explained how she volunteered to attend school with her son everyday for 3 years because no one told her that her son Richard could have an aid.  She now is part of The Parent Resource Network that was developed to help inform and teach parents whose children are receiving special education services, whose children are not receiving special education services, but feel as though their child needs them, about the IEP process and about their legal rights for their child's education.

One mother came in off of the street into The Parent Resource Network office crying because she has an IEP meeting to go to and she is feeling lost and confused and feels as though the school is not listening to her in her concerns and wants for her daughter.  

This clip in the movie I want to dedicate time to talk about because it made me unbelievably sad to see.  This mother that speaks mostly Spanish is lost and confused and feels that she is not being heard.  How can our education system have come to situations such as this? Schools need to not only refine and enhance, but transform the special education process in order to truly support the students and families that they serve.  It is great that there is a Parent Resource Network in this school district, but there shouldn't have to be one, for parents to understand what is going on with their child's education and to understand the rights that they and their children have by law.  School districts need to be beyond forthcoming with information to support and teach parents about special education services, processes, laws and rights and make them feel valued and as part of the special education team, instead of preying on their ignorances to the processes. 

When this mother explained to Richard Martinez's mother (someone who works at The Parent Resource Network) she explained how her daughter's evaluation has taken 8 months and in the mean time her daughter has not received what she needs, is angry, frustrated, and "put into a corner." Hearing this mother's explanation stood out to me because I feel as though it is something that I have seen take place far too many times in the district that I currently work in. Evaluations can take almost a whole school year, special education services are put off until the collection of more data, making a child go through 1 sometimes even 2 school years of not having an IEP and them losing out on incredibly important services in mean time.


 I found a connection amongst this movie and the other readings and discussions we've had in class regarding the culture of power. I noticed that in this school district in LA, the majority of families were working class families who, many of them were also immigrants with English not being their home language. It is my perception that these families in this school district were taken advantage of because of their status in the culture of power being on the lower end.  I feel as though the school district took advantage of these families, assuming that they were less educated on special education processes, laws, and their rights because of their working class status, non-white status, and language.  The school district most likely would not have been able to push students aside in the ways that they did in this school district, if the residents of this school district were middle/upper class, white, English speaking families.