The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) Board of Education will finish off its first round of discussions related to addressing disproportionality in special education during its Thursday meeting.
During the meeting, the board is scheduled to be informed that district administrative regulations (ARs) related to the disproportionality plan have been updated, with a host of language revisions keeping the ARs in alignment with mandated and optional updates from the California School Boards Association. In November 2023, the board unanimously approved of a plan to address disproportionality, which is defined as "the overrepresentation of a specific race or ethnicity" with students identified for special education.
According to the California Department of Education, SMMUSD was found "significantly disproportionate" from the 2019-20 school year through the 2021-22 school year, particularly with identification of Latinx and Hispanic students for special education based on learning disability. To remedy this, the board’s approved plan will work to fix root causes of disproportionality, such as increased clarity of districtwide support system framework and increased cultural competency with inclusion and relationship-building with students and parents.
During the board’s Feb. 1 meeting, SMMUSD Assistant Superintendent Dr. Mark Kelly and Director of Special Education Victoria Hurst provided the AR updates, updated to align with CSBA mandates and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) regulations. A total of seven ARs and Board Policies were updated, including several sub-points within a few of the ARs. Kelly said that many of the language revisions were reflections of things the district is already doing with respect to special education.
"Many of them are guided by regulations, laws, both at the federal level and at the state level," Kelly said at the Feb. 1 board meeting. "It’s very difficult for a district on its own to track all of these changes. We want to make sure that our board policies reflect the philosophies of the board, but also are compliant with the law. That is very difficult for anyone to track … we’re doing as much as we can to have fidelity with the board policies and regulations."
Updated ARs and Board Policies include the Comprehensive Local Plan for Special Education, the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), Staff Development, Suspension and Expulsion and Staff Development. Clarifications were added to the LCAP to state that it shall focus on improving outcomes for not only "unduplicated students," but also students part of any numerical significant subgroup at risk of underperforming. For Staff Development, language was added related to student well-being and mental health, as well as adding face-to-face, remote or hybrid instruction to the list of technology used for instruction.
Thursday’s meeting will also hear several reports, including a supplemental report for an annual LCAP update and a mid-year report on outcome data related to LCAP metrics. The mid-year report dives into expenditure and implementation data on actions related to LCAP goals such as college and career readiness, English Learner proficiency and engaging students and families "in safe, well-maintained schools that are culturally responsive and conducive to 21st century learning."
The report notes actions that are both completed and in progress, including the completion of improving instructional outcomes through cycles of inquiry. "We have implemented and refined our Assessment Continuum PK-12 that consists of site-based formative assessments, district-wide interim, and diagnostic assessments that provide evidence of student learning and mastery toward meeting grade-level standards," the report states.
Other completed actions are the securing of financial and human resources to support Career Technical Education programs and innovations, as well as providing Bilingual Community Liaisons to assist families "particularly [in] underserved and historically under-participatory" with interpretation and transition support for accessing school site supports and other programs.
