Before working as an activist, commentator, and director in an international pro-family non-profit, I was a teacher.
Full-time or part-time, substitute or tutor, I noticed the pervasive bureaucracy around special education. When I was earning my teaching credential, every teacher candidate had to pass an entire course on special education. The credentialing program could not have been clearer about the importance of meeting every standard for special education students. Dr. Richard LaVoie of Connecticut, a world-renowned researcher and advocate for special education children, featured in many of those classroom lessons, and he sounded the alarm on the rampant disrespect that these students and their parents face. Special needs students need special care — no surprise! Don’t tell a parent that “It’s not fair” to give a special-ed kid more time to take a test or to finish a project.
With all the federal laws, state regulations (especially in California), and rigorous training, one would think that special education students were getting the best education.
The reverse is true. Parents of special ed students fight an uphill battle the moment they enroll their children in local public schools. Despite the extensive promises and legal frameworks designed to protect these precious children, parents run into administrative bloat and bureaucratic gloat seeking to avoid providing necessary testing, treatment, and teaching. They force parents to hire education advocates and lawyers to enforce their justified claims.
School districts would rather fight in court than serve special education students. They don’t want to spend the money, and they have no incentive to provide better care since many parents have neither the time nor the means to enroll their children elsewhere. After all, most private schools are exempt or simply declare upfront that they cannot provide proper services for special needs students.
I have spoken with many parents who had to fight year after year to get the basic services which their special needs children were entitled to. I witnessed special ed teachers, whether in LA County classrooms or in individual school districts, plow through reams of paper, documenting everything just to cover themselves in case of failures or missing academic standards. Most of these teachers were doing their best, but most special ed students deal with general ed teachers, who too often do not have the resources or support to help these students.
Worse yet, some of the most unprofessional environments for children and adults take place in special ed classrooms. From stressful confrontations to outright shouting matches, fear and loathing are the norm — and the kids are caught in the middle of it all. It’s no wonder that special-ed parents relentlessly demand everything necessary for their children. The system is designed to frustrate and belittle the parents rather than assist them and educate their children.
One signature case of this systemic failure is taking place in El Monte Unified School District, with the case of Adriana G.
Like most children during the COVID-19 pandemic, Adriana learned at home. In both kindergarten and first grade, she received an excellent education from her parents. She was happy, engaged, growing in her ability to interact with others and integrate knowledge. Because of her outspoken nature, she enjoyed singing during lessons.
Adriana is a capable student. She can learn, and she can enjoy learning. Do not lose sight of this image of this young lady, because the gleeful image of a happy learner disappeared as soon as she enrolled the El Monte Unified School District.
During her second-grade year, Adriana stopped singing and started crying, yelling, and covering her ears during class time. She would not cooperate with lessons, and she would even throw things in the classroom. These kinds of behaviors are all too common for a child with autism, as they are unable to handle the high stimuli of a busy elementary school.
The teachers proved unhelpful, as they were consumed with helping other students. All too often, the special-ed students get left behind because of day-to-day classroom management and planning. The parents put their daughter back into homeschooling, and her learning improved.
Then her parents tried to reenroll her in El Monte Unified.
Shanda Ellsworth, special-ed advocate for Adriana and her family, noted the following problems that emerged upon her reentry into the classroom:
“Routine environmental experiences became overwhelming. Loud restroom flushing caused significant distress, leading her parent to repeatedly request permission for Adriana to use an alternative restroom as a reasonable accommodation. The requests were denied.
“School staff also observed persistent squinting, prompting recommendations that the family seek private medical evaluation. Unaware that the district maintained an obligation to assess suspected disability-related vision concerns, the family pursued evaluations independently before eventually obtaining specialized developmental vision services.
“These observations suggested that Adriana's difficulties extended well beyond observable classroom behavior and reflected broader neurological and sensory processing challenges.”
Adriana is not a problem child. She has learning disabilities. Notice that when parents requested accommodations, the District wouldn’t budge. “Persistent squinting” shows a child who wants to learn, and yet the district couldn’t “squint” close enough to see that Adriana needed comprehensive intervention to succeed. The District had the audacity to tell the parents to pay for their own testing, when they had the responsibility to shoulder that cost.
As expected, Adriana’s parents became the sole advocates for their child. They documented her hardships, including repeated requests for testing, which demonstrated a need for Individualized Education Plans. They even contacted independent evaluators, who documented the following issues, according to Ms. Lobatos: “[S]ignificant deficits involving sensory integration, developmental vision, visual-motor integration, executive functioning, communication, and self-regulation.”
Such symptoms are the hallmarks of learning disabilities, like autism. They should not be ignored, and school districts have a responsibility to step in.
El Monte Unified did nothing, or rather, they did nothing to help. Constantly, the district staff would reduce Adriana’s behavioral and learning problems to disciplinary issues. All the signs clearly indicated that the child had learning disabilities. Two out-of-district evaluations, paid for by the parents, affirmed the parents’ suspicions about their child. Of course, arrogant bureaucrats think they know better than “silly, uneducated” parents, so they continued dismissing the parents’ demands for testing and special ed accommodations.
The clash between the school district and parents became so acute that teachers would keep Adriana in class, preventing her from going to recess or lunch, because she did not finish her lessons in class. From frustrations to abuse, El Monte Unified teachers exposed their clear lack of caring as well as a distinct lack of professionalism.
At multiple points during Adriana’s early education, the District could have provided appropriate special education assessments to determine her needs. The combination of neurological issues, including her unpleasant responses to sounds and environmental pressures, should have alerted teachers that she was not a mere “problem child.”
Now, El Monte Unified is facing bigger problems, with Adriana’s parents seeking legal action.
Why do districts choose the hard way? Teachers’ unions want as little trouble as possible for their members. School districts don’t want to bear the costs, as enrollment plummets and funding decreases.
This is just one awful story of a bad school not helping children in need. Can you imagine how bad it is across the country?