The Abridged version:
- Parents of students with disabilities often face emotional and overwhelming processes trying to get accommodations in school. Many said starting out was the most challenging and confusing part.
- Families have come to lean on one another, forming special education PTAs or becoming one another’s advocates in meetings with school officials.
- School districts across the Sacramento region are typically juggling large caseloads and rising costs associated with special education.
Nora Torres sobbed the first time she read a school staff report about her daughter, Dahlia.
“She’s never going to do well in school,” Torres remembers thinking.
Dahlia, now 7, was diagnosed with autism at 2 years old and is nonverbal. She has needed special education services since she enrolled in the Roseville City School District. Dahlia is in second grade and on her third school so far.
Parents like Torres shared their emotional experiences navigating the world of special education across the Sacramento area. They described an opaque system that feels stacked against them and their families. They recalled being outnumbered in meetings with school staff, where the conversations were laden with acronym-heavy, technically specific jargon.
And though some aspects vary district to district, parents from Roseville to Natomas, Carmichael to Elk Grove, said they share many of the same challenges.
“It’s all very much traumatic,” said Ryan Digman, whose son has autism and attends school at San Juan Unified in north Sacramento County.
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School settings were historically designed for students without disabilities, and students with disabilities were siloed in special education classes or excluded from school altogether.
Rounds of state and federal legislation over decades established a right to public education for students with disabilities. School administrators are legally required to provide services and accommodations, based on a student’s individual needs.
The number of students needing additional support has increased nationwide in recent years. As has the cost of providing these services, a challenge for school districts across the Sacramento region and California.
Meanwhile, parents say they are left wading through confusion and frustration in hopes of getting the best possible outcomes for their children.
A plan tailored to the student
Each student with a classified disability — such as physical conditions, speech impairment, blindness or deafness — receives an individualized education program.
School staff or parents can request an evaluation for a student at any point.
Following these in-school assessments and resulting diagnoses, parents meet with a handful of school and district staff to draw up a plan specific to that student. That plan outlines various goals and selects services to help students reach those benchmarks.
The meetings
Parents whose children need accommodations get at least one annual meeting to discuss how their specific plan is progressing. Some said they end up reconvening multiple times a school year.
It’s common across districts, parents said, to walk into a room or log on to a virtual call where five to 10 educators are waiting. The first experience is often the most intimidating.
“You feel like so many people are giving up their time for me. So many people who are professionals who’ve been doing this for so long,” Marisa Azevedo said. “And here is little old me, and I have no idea what I’m doing.”
Azevedo’s 11-year-old son Junin, who has autism, started receiving special education services when their family lived in the Bay Area. Almost three years ago, they moved to Roseville where Junin is now in sixth grade.
Her family has been lucky, Azevedo said, working with knowledgeable school professionals and staff who are generally receptive to her questions or concerns. Still, getting her son the right form of assistance has been an arduous process of trial and error.
‘Like we’re going to war’
For some parents, the meetings feel less collaborative and more like playing defense.
“These meetings end up in tears. They end up in anxiety,” said Digman, who has led multiple special education advocacy groups for parents in San Juan Unified.
“It’s like we’re going to war each time,” he added.
Digman recently helped create the San Juan Unified Special Education PTA. Nearby, the Natomas Special Education PTA also started this year.
The groups’ meetings, which school district officials sometimes attend, offer parents a gathering space, where they can learn from one another and share advice or resources. They also are a chance to vent.
In late September, the Natomas group had its first official meeting. Over sandwich wheels and chocolate chip cookies in the library’s community room, roughly a dozen parents flooded discussion with stories of taxing school conferences, complaints of unreasonable timelines and confusion over different terms or abbreviations.
One of the worst parts, these parents and others said, is being inundated with negative feedback.
“All you hear is, ‘Your kid’s not doing this,’ or ‘Your kid’s below this,'” said Torres, in Roseville.
Schools work to keep up
Julie Resendez runs Resendez Advocacy and offers services to parents including reviewing individualized plans and explaining the process and vocabulary. She has an office in Roseville but helps families statewide.
Resendez has been on both sides of the table, as a former special educator director and superintendent of Placer Hills Union School District.
“Everybody has a lot on their plate,” she said.
School districts are tight on time and resources, and most are juggling a high case load, she said. In the average California school district, roughly one in seven students have an individualized program, according to recent research.
In San Juan Unified, administrators say they have spent the last few years soliciting feedback from families, adding training for teachers and staff, and trying to make the process more accessible.
The district will soon roll out a new handbook for families, detailing what to expect when seeking special education services. Rebecca Foster, director of special education for San Juan Unified, said the guide was created in partnership with parent groups.
“Our focus really is engaging with the parents, helping them through the process,” Foster said. “And doing that with care and compassion, because it can be challenging. It can be overwhelming.”
Parents helping parents
Outside of school, parents said they have found support from one another.
Some accompany one another to school meetings, as parents are allowed to bring family members, friends or outside advocates, like Resendez, with them.
In Rocklin, Azevedo and her husband run a gym called We Rock the Spectrum. The indoor play space opened six months ago and is specifically designed for kids with disabilities.
The community reception has been overwhelming — in a good way, Azevedo said.
“Parents (were) just saying, ‘We’ve never been able to find a place that’s for us, that is designed for us in mind,'” she said.
Now at Crestmont Elementary School in Roseville, Dahlia is in the best place she’s ever been in school, her mother said.
It helps, Torres said, that meetings there begin with staff listing Dahlia’s positive attributions and strengths.
Digman said he hopes all special education processes can take on a more optimistic approach.
“We all have the same goals,” he said. “We just want our children to succeed.”
