Stability for OUSD's Disabled Students + Families

On April 22nd (this Wednesday), OUSD Board Resolution 2526-0181 will be brought to a vote after languishing for three years. It is written in clear, brief language and offers the opportunity to accomplish a simple but morally imperative task: Offer special education classes the same protection that is already afforded every other type of class in the district.

If you're surprised/shocked/outraged to hear that this protection isn't currently guaranteed, I encourage you to read on!

Under current practice, if a Special Education program is relocated, redesigned, or closed, the students and families served by it can abruptly lose access to the entire school community that has supported them, including teachers, their aides, and their classmates. For disabled students this can be incredibly difficult and traumatic, as it disrupts routines they've worked years to master, and removes them from a safe space where they finally feel that they belong.

General education students generally won't face this type of sudden change. Board Policy 5116.1 grants "continuing student priority", which means that students already enrolled in a school with no intent to leave get to stay where they are. If general education classrooms need to be consolidated, it happens within a school, not across schools. No first-grade student in general education wakes up in August to find that their entire program is moving to a different school.

Up to now, disabled students have not been afforded that protection, though the CAC has been asking for it since May of 2023! This is something that can and should be remediated immediately.

This Resolution at a Glance

Resolution 2526-0181: School Stability and Belonging for Disabled Students in OUSD requires that any move, redesign, or closure of a Special Education program be approved by the full Board as a noticed public item, be presented to the Community Advisory Committee at least 30 days before the Board vote, be decided before the next enrollment window opens, and not take effect until the school year after the one in which it's proposed. This is meant to provide disabled students and their families a real runway, offers our elected officials real oversight, and gives an opportunity for the community to hold them accountable. There are thoughtful, reasonable exceptions in the resolution for urgent health and safety concerns and sudden staffing emergencies.

What it specifically does not do is freeze programs. Classrooms can still be consolidated within a site. Grade configurations can change. Programs can be redesigned to serve broader ranges of need. The only thing it prohibits is a unilateral decision that strips currently enrolled children of their school. In short, this is an imperative that asks for proactive planning instead of paralysis.

Who is OUSD as a Community?

To me, this resolution is about building in ethically sound protections for disabled students in a time of fiscal uncertainty, which should be enough for a unanimous vote from our board. The thing is, I also find it to be an opportunity to reflect on the kind of community our district wants to be in times of crisis and opportunity alike.

The district and board, and Oakland's governing structures at large, have a serious trust problem. Families here have endured years of legislative paralysis, followed by reactive, opaque decision-making, followed by engagement processes that ask for input after decisions have already been made. As OUSD tries to reach actual fiscal solvency, there will be a process that raises hard questions about right-sizing, structure, and sustainability. A lack of trust will cause this process to fail before it has begun, and so I believe we need signals that the board and district are willing and able to protect students with real, serious planning in concert with the communities they serve.

This resolution provides a strong signal that this kind of process can happen at OUSD. The need for change that we face is sweeping, and can only be met with families at the table, on timelines that respect human lives, with true transparency and accountability built in. The vote on Wednesday is a concrete test of whether the Board means what it says about proactive governance and meaningful engagement.

It's also about what we're teaching our children about inclusion. When our kids in the general education population see the transience of their friends with IEPs over the summer, and when those kids with IEPs cannot depend on the support of the rest of us to maintain structures they rely on to feel included, they all see who truly counts as a full member of the OUSD community. If instead, we support stability and inclusion for all of them, our kids will learn what I think is a better lesson by example: adults making specific, clear choices to foster a sense of belonging for every single student, without exception.

I will be at the board meeting in person on Wednesday, and I encourage you to join me in speaking out and voicing an expectation of unanimous approval of a resolution that has taken far too long to come to a vote.