S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman. On today's show , we're talking about San Diego Unified , and it has one of the highest rates of students who receive special education support. And the need is only growing. But the budget isn't meeting demand. We'll talk about what's happening there. This is KPBS Midday Edition connecting our communities through conversation. So every student has unique learning needs , and meeting those needs is key to success. This is especially true for students who receive special education services. In the San Diego Unified School District. 1 in 5 students use those services to reach success. That's one of the highest rates in California. And as the number of students enrolled climbs , federal and state funding is just not keeping up. Joining me to talk about that is San Diego Unified Superintendent Fabi Begala. Abby , Welcome.
S2: Thank you for having me.
S1: So glad to have you here. Um. To tonight. There there is this , uh , school board meeting to discuss next year's expected $47 million budget deficit.
S2: Of course , we want to make sure we uphold all legal requirements and provide children everything that they need. That's how we even build our budgets. We first think about the investments in student learning , but frankly , 125 million is given to special education from federal and state dollars , but it costs well over $400 million to fund special education services. Again , we're doing our due diligence legally , but that's over $300 million out of the general fund going to these services.
S1:
S2: So I don't want to impact students or families about this. But what I do believe is that if we were fully funded , if Ida kept its promise to fund at least that by 40 , at 40% , we would be able to have really great proactive measures , innovative things that we can do to help students instead of just keeping legal.
S1:
S2: I'm sorry. I'm going to have to look it up. It's the disabilities for Disability Education Act that was passed in the 1970s from the federal government that said that they would support any student or person with disability. And so that was passed by the federal government in the 70s , and they had promised that it would be funding 40% of special education. But they've never kept that promise. So it's been decades of , um , woefully underfunding programs. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Okay. So but data show the district has received around $100 million a year from the state and federal governments for the last decade.
S2: It hasn't. We should have been sounding the alarm every year as far as I'm concerned , because this is still there. So if you promise and I want to make sure that I capture this accurately , it's the individuals with Disabilities Education Act. My apologies for fumbling with that , but we've only ever been funded under 10%. We're currently funded at 6%. So I'm surprised that we haven't been ringing this bell , that we haven't been united. I'm hoping that all of the superintendents from across the nation lock arms and say , yes , we need all of this money because our children deserve it and we need it. So it's been something that we should have been doing a long time ago.
S1: So one expectation.
S2: Students that needed students that don't needed districts that all of us that needs it. So my hope is that we all unite. I'm calling for radical unity in support of our students at that end , that federal and state government policies and funding gets given to our schools , as promised. That's my biggest hope. My hope is also that they listen , that they hear that we're growing in our enrollment and when it comes to special education , and that they continue to uphold their promise.
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S2: Like , I'm not sure what the gap is , but considering that we're all underfunded , I know that it's going to. It is a cost for all of us. Something that we've discussed , for example , is California added the transitional kindergarten , the new grade level. And what we're seeing is that there's a wide need to support our students that are coming in , because what we're seeing is there's a lot of children that need specialized services as four year olds , and so it's beautiful to have this new grade level. But we're discussing what are the needs that are now emerging based on this grade level. So a lot of the large urban school districts in California are discussing very specific behavioral support needs and advocating at the California as well.
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S2: I actually think that our society has changed. Our society has changed the way that children are brought up. I'm going to say social media pressures. Also , the things with making sure that children are able to read by grade level come to school on time. All of those things are being impacted. When we think about , um , the budget and how finances are affecting , um , families , how difficult it is to make a living and have a home with , uh , I'm going to say the traditional home and the American American dream that we used to. So , uh , uphold it's it's kind of failing right now. And so what do we do about that and how is it impacting our students ? How is it impacting children ? Um , I think a lot of different societal factors are what we're seeing.
S1: Yesterday at a news conference , you mentioned redesigning special education in the district.
S2: So that is something. Thank you for asking that question because this isn't something that we're just saying. It's federal and state. We also have to look in the mirror. So we have to develop a continuum of service that services from entry point , meaning from preschool all the way to graduation. And so what that means is do we have the speech and language pathologies pathologists required to help young children ? Do we have the transitional counselors that it takes to make sure that there are children , as they start graduating , are able to live a choice filled life ? So we actually have to see what systems of support exist all the way across. That's what we're going to start to do. And also make sure that our general education teachers have the professional learning and the support when children with special needs are in their classroom. So we're going to be working with parents designing those pieces. That's internally , externally. I'm going to continue to advocate for state and federal funding , and I'm also going to be talking to local universities about the credentialing system when we have our teaching credentials. They separate. They separate general education from special education. It makes it very hard to become experts in helping all children. And so I think that there's a need to combine that expertise from the credentialing programs before you even enter the classroom. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Well , you know , we know that demand is going up for a number of reasons , as you mentioned. One of the fixes you talked about is is solving over identification of students for special education.
S2: So one of them is there's. So I'll give you an example. Many children come into this country as immigrants or as refugees , and they don't speak the language. And so many times there's a there's not enough distinction between. Is this a language issue or is this a cognitive issue ? And what we're seeing is that children that need language then get placed into special education. But it's not cognitive , it's language. There's also the other end. There's an article that was currently written , I want to say that semantic , but I might get the citation wrong about how many students receive a special time for SATs and for college applications. And they're at Harvard. And so there's also an over identification with students that families recognize that if you have an IEP , you get extra supports and extra time to conduct these. So I'm seeing over identification from different angles.
S1: Another thing you're trying to address is educator turnover and burnout. What does that issue look like in San Diego schools.
S2: So there there's the way special education is done is there's many different avenues of entry. Right. I describe special I'm sorry , a speech and language pathologist , occupational therapist. There's a lot of different specialties that help support students. Specifically what I'm talking about is there's the program is separated into mild moderate and mod severe and mod severe requires a little bit of more hands on support and help. And what we're seeing is across the nation , there's a shortage of teachers that are entering with that credential. And when they do enter that credential , they quickly exit. And what I'm hearing from the field , when I go out and speak to teachers about why is because it's a lot of responsibility. There is a lot of there isn't enough support for them when they once they enter the classroom , they come in with all of the I mean , I say they come in with a beautiful heart of wanting to support these students. And what they're seeing is there isn't enough support for the students that are in wheelchairs or have medical difficulties that we actually have to support them on. And so that's the piece that that I say by burnout. They say , look , we're we're doing our best , but we need actually more support. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. How much does the county help in that support ? I know through the regional center there are some services offered.
S2: Yes , we do have partnership with them. I there's age groups that they support us with , but I'm going to say it's still not enough to run a very robust system. Hmm.
S1: Hmm.
S2: That's a parent leadership group. And that's going to be very important because I want to do this together. I think it's going to invoke a whole community. So once we started looking at the two things that we're going to start , we're going to start working on , because again , this problem is very big. So the first thing we're going to work on is what I described. What is the professional learning , how we merge the skill set that's necessary to have students with disabilities in our classrooms. And the second one is the transitions , because we're seeing once children go from elementary school to middle school or middle school to high school , we need specialized supports there. That's what parents identified they wanted support with. That's what our special education department said they were going to work on. I would like them to build a strategic plan together. So we're currently going to do that. And then we want to publicize it and also get feedback from the community.
S1:
S2: I think that whatever we have , the budget deficit needs to exist outside of special education because our children in special education require and need all of the support. So I'm not expecting to make those types of impacts because of it.
S1: Before we go just to to paint the picture for our audience of the kind of needs those services meet.
S2: And what I would like to see is a systemic way of supporting each and every child across every school. That requires a lots of specialized services , but a lots of sharing of knowledge , and so that the sharing of knowledge and sharing of children and sharing of responsibilities requires a new way of being and leading and professional learning. So , for example , if you and I are third grade teachers and we each have 20 students and you have three students with disabilities and I have three students with disabilities , how are we working together , along with the resource specialist , along with the parents , to make sure that we provide all of the supports as necessary. That type of sharing of responsibility requires time to not only nurture that relationship , but also to nurture the expertise there. And I've seen those systems across some schools. I'm not going to say all of them. Across some schools where teachers come together , share the responsibilities , take on the mutual responsibility of each student. And it's really beautiful to see. But it requires time , learning and speciality.
S1: I've been speaking with Bobby Bagley , superintendent for San Diego Unified School District. Bobby , thank you so much for joining us.
S2: Thank you so much , I appreciate you.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
