Representatives of this committee will be encouraged to attend national and state conferences and programs as well as trainings to address the full spectrum of special needs children. The committee would also be encouraged to follow the "Best Practices for Family Involvement in Comprehensive System of Personnel Development" developed by the San Diego City Schools and publicized through the CDE.

6.      ASK recommends that MBUSD takes steps to ensure that all district personnel involved in any way in the delivery of services to children with special needs have the requisite skill level, experience and credentialed competencies required for them to do their jobs effectively, appropriately and efficiently. Historically, many of those who have been hired to provide services to children with special needs have been without experience, training or education in the field. The standards for hiring an inclusion specialist or an aide should be just as rigorous as for the hiring of a superintendent: hiring an inexperienced, unqualified individual to do the job serves no one’s purpose. Most significantly, such a practice not only detrimentally impacts the child, it negatively affects that employee’s co-workers, and also serves to tarnish the reputation of the district as well for it could lead to claims that a child was left unsupported in contravention of his or her IEP. In that regard, we recognize that teachers need more support and training to meet the needs of all our students and recommend that supports for teachers serving students be written into the IEP.

7.      ASK recommends that MBUSD ensure that personnel who have any oversight or involvement with special education students be adequately informed of the law with regard to special education so that they understand its implications, appropriately apply it in terms of the provision of special education services and are capable of informing parents of their children’s general rights under the law. This is not presently occurring.

8.      ASK recommends that MBUSD publish and provide to all parents of children with special needs accurate and complete information with regard to the full continuum of placements, including the general education classroom with supplementary aids and services, the full range of services that should be available and the various means by which those services can be delivered so that parents are able to make informed choices for their child’s education. In this regard, ASK expects MBUSD to present all options available with an eye toward adapting the delivery of service configuration to serve the needs of the individual child, rather than expecting the child to conform to the delivery method currently utilized by the district. This is not presently occurring at students’ IEP’s.

9.      ASK recommends that MBUSD provide its written policy articulating Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the rights students have pursuant to that law to all parents prior to any student success team meeting, IEP or 504 meeting. This information should include the name of the 504 Compliance Officer for both the district and the school site and should also include procedures to be followed in the case of inquiries or complaints. Neither the policy nor the information it contains is presently being made available to families.

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