News

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Development of a Special Education Action Plan

The Santa Barbara School Districts had a special education study conducted last spring by the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT). We will be using the 153 recommendations from this study to develop a Special Education Action Plan. To assist us in this process, a Special Education Stakeholder Workgroup was convened by the board of education “to review the categories of recommendations, consolidate any duplicates, identify responsible entities for implementation, and establish a suggested priority timeline.” The Stakeholder Workgroup met twice and now we will have three community input forums.

Parents of children with special needs, educators, and interested community membersare invited to the community forums to share their ideas about the districts’ restructuring efforts in special education. The community forums will be held on three different dates and sites from 6:30 PM–8:30 PM:

• October 28 at La Cumbre Junior High,
• November 2 at Goleta Valley Junior High,
• November 4 at Santa Barbara Junior High (the November 4 meeting will be conducted in Spanish with English translation).

The Stakeholder Workgroup will take input from the forums, reconvene, and finish the task prescribed by the board.