State to examine Scotts Valley’s special ed

Special education in Scotts Valley’s schools will be reviewed by the California Department of Education next month.
The Scotts Valley Unified School District was selected as one of two districts in the county to undergo an extensive review of its special-education practices in 2011. Pajaro Valley Unified will also be reviewed.
“We were planning to go through a self-study this year,” Superintendent Susan Silver said. “This is a more formal, more intense study.”
Silver, who will go through the state review for the first time, said she does not know why the district was selected, but she noted that the education department looks at records, finances, complaints against schools and other information in the selection process.
The district is required to review its own special-education setup once every four years, but the more comprehensive review by the state will involve a team from the Department of Education visiting Scotts Valley for at least a week.
The purpose of the review is to ensure that students receive the services delineated in their Individualized Educational Programs and that the district complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act, said James Johnson, the administrator who will oversee the review for the education department.
People from the department will arrive in the middle of January to prepare the district’s staff and begin sifting through records and conducting interviews.
During the visit, a team of four or five consultants will go to the district office and various schools to speak with administrators and staff and host a meeting where parents can share their thoughts, Johnson said.
Silver compared the review to a financial audit, except it scrutinizes a program instead of finances.
Johnson said the review will probably take about a week. He said the education department reviews an average of six districts per region each year. The Bay Area region encompasses 14 counties, including Santa Cruz.
Soquel Union Elementary School District superintendent Kathleen Howard has been through a review by the state before when her district was reviewed in May 2006.
She said investigators pored over IEPs, talked with people and reviewed district policy.
“It’s always a good experience to have somebody from the outside come in and have an outside point of view on things,” Howard said.
Soquel made some changes in procedures in concert with the County of Education based on the review, Howard said.
It’s unclear why Scotts Valley was selected, but it might have been because of a higher than usual number of phone calls from Scotts Valley parents to the DOE, according to several parents.
“If someone phones me because channels of communication have been closed to them, I will tell them to phone the state,” said Peter McLean, an outspoken special-education parent who sits on the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, Area Board 7.
McLean no longer has a child in the Scotts Valley district, after he pulled his special education student from local schools five years ago for private education.
“I think the parents need to know someone has their back, and the state does,” McLean said. “The state will ensure the district is in compliance with federal and state law.”
Fellow Area Board 7 member Susie Christensen, the mother of a child in special-education classes in the district, said she has seen a lack of communication between special-education parents and administrators that has led to parent complaints.
“If someone calls, we try to help with parental knowledge,” Christensen said. “But if there are legalities involved, we say, call the state.”
Silver noted that budget cuts have left the district with fewer employees to complete day-to-day work while also providing the Department of Education with information and interviews. That increased workload makes the review feel like a burden, she said.
“We wish that it hadn’t happened to us,” Silver said.