SEPAC Statement – May 5, 2020

Statements read at the meeting are in bold with additional details following.

We ask for your consideration for the needs of students with disabilities and particularly low income, black and brown students with disabilities who are the most vulnerable among the most vulnerable students in CPS. Our students make up 1/5th of the total CPS student body and are the lowest performing student group in the district.

We are speaking on several agenda items:

1) We support motion 20-69 and ask that the Committee additionally specify that a parent of a child on an IEP must be part of every School Improvement Council.

2) We support motion 20-71 requiring weekly staff check-ins with every student, but ask that staff check-ins also include families, which is not consistently happening at this time according to our members, and students with disability are unable to access the learning material as a result of their parents not understanding what is going on.

3) We are also in support of Motion 20-70, regarding the set up of a recovery task force. The SE-PAC board should be included as part of the recovery task force, to ensure the perspective of children with disabilities is considered. We also ask that CPS adopt a parent-friendly system for sharing student assessment data such as I-Ready.

In order to adequately address the recovery, we ask that parents be given full information as to how their child is performing compared to educational standards for students at their grade level. We ask that the district move to adopt a system like i-Ready, which is currently being used by a charter school in Cambridge as well as other school districts. We feel that this type of system addresses some equity concerns, not just for students with disabilities, but for all underperforming groups, as it provides communication to families as to the gaps in a student’s education, but provides tools that families can be involved in to address those gaps.

In the meantime, until CPS is able to adopt a system like i-Ready, we ask that after benchmark testing is available over the course of the year a report on results be shared with every family. In this way families will be able to be part of the plan to address their child’s gaps in learning. Only in this way can a true recovery plan address the gaps in education that exist in our District.

4) Regarding the Budget and District Plan, we support the major restructuring of CPS at the levels of Assistant Superintendents and request that the SE-PAC be the district’s resource for appointing a Special Education parent to each of the hiring committees for Cabinet-level positions including Assistant Superintendents of Elementary and Upper School/High Schools and Chief Equity Officer.

Job descriptions of both Assistant Superintendents should include responsibility for inclusion of students with disabilities within general education settings regardless of placement and collaboration with the Assistant Superintendent for Student Services in order to hold schools accountable for inclusion and achievement goals. To ensure that disability rights are included within the equity vision of CPS, it is fundamentally important that students with disabilities be included in all planning around the position of Chief Equity Officer

5) We also wish to appoint a parent member for the position of Chief Talent Officer to ensure that the successful candidate has experience operating in a unionized setting to both value employees and hold them accountable to appropriate Civil Rights standards.

6) Finally, we ask that as new structures are finalized, CPS correct the structural power imbalance that places the Assistant Superintendent for Student Services at a lower level of the district hierarchy than other Assistant Superintendents. The Assistant Superintendent for Student Services is responsible for special education quality and compliance within every single school in our district. If the Superintendent truly believes that our students are as important as any others, their highest administrative advocate should report directly to him or her.

We have advocated for this in the past, and make this recommendation independent of any specific individuals. The role should not be structurally parallel to Curriculum Coordinators and Principals – it should be parallel to the instructional, curriculum and legal compliance leaders of the district. If the Superintendent of Schools truly believes that our students are as important as any others, their highest administrative advocate should report directly to him or her.

Signed by fifteen current SE-PAC members