Today was the first mandatory day back for all educators. We work today, tomorrow, and then the kids arrive on Wednesday.
At least, that’s the usual plan.
But this year is a contract negotiation year. Our collective contracts between Seattle Public Schools (the district; SPS) and the Seattle Education Association (our union; SEA), have expired, and it’s up to both parties to come to terms before the students arrive, or we quite literally can’t do our jobs.
The district (as it does) claims the union to be at fault for there not being a contract yet, but the district also walked out of negotiations yesterday, as we’re nearing the zeroth hour. Additionally, the union is very stuck: it cannot accept what the district is putting down, without axing nearly half of special education. And as the union is beholden to its own membership, that’s something it really can’t do.
Seems extreme, yeah? It is, and the district is just as stuck.
See, things being as they are with federal education cuts and the world being, well, kind of a shitshow, the district is over-budget by about $70 million dollars. Now, there are plenty of places they can go for this money (state loans, taxes against big Seattle businesses and billionaires, their own executive salaries), but they all have caveats and strings attached (the state has requirements that tie the district’s hands until the loans are paid off; you have to vote on these taxes and big businesses will get all weepy about it; and they don’t wanna, respectively). So, naturally, the only place they can turn to is to axe their own services, supporting their own most vulnerable, at-risk students.
Let me explain a little more about what the district has on the table.
Right now, we functionally have four special education programs. Here’s what they look like at (for example) an elementary level:
• Resource: Think of this as the shallow end of the needs pool. It has many, many kids, but they all have only one or two classes in the area(s) of their greatest need(s). Things like extra reading lessons for dyslexia, that sort of stuff. You have a very small number of adults, but it usually works out because the large number of kids involved each individually don’t require much.
• Extended Resource: Here you have kids who can spend maybe half their day in their regular classes, and half in a specialized learning environment. You get kiddos with mild-moderate autism, some social-emotional learning kids with challenging behaviors, a lot of very funny and interesting characters, each with some pretty extensive needs. This is where I work and live.
• Focus: This is for kids who can be in class *some* of the time. Think moderate-severe autism, intellectual disability, stuff like that. Communication issues (in terms of generating communication or appropriate communication) are often common here. Classes tend to focus on the basics as much as possible. I’ve worked here as well, and have some pretty fond memories.
• Distinct: These kids can’t be in their normative classrooms *at all*, for any number of reasons. Sometimes it’s extreme behaviors, sometimes it’s deeply severe autism, but kiddos in Distinct require a 100% specialized learning environment to get through their day in any shape or form. It’s a very tough job, but I’ve met people who are quite happy doing it.
TL;DR: You can break it down roughly as: Resource is for kids who need 25% specialized education, Extended is for 50% specialized education, Focus is 75%, and Distinct is 100%. Not entirely accurate, but that’s the general idea.
The district wants to smash those programs together.
They want to combine Resource and Extended into a single program, and Focus and Distinct into a single program, to only have two tiers of special education. And, they want to eliminate about half the special education jobs in the district by doing so.
This means every special educator will have to juggle twice as much work, when the current workload is already crushing. This also means dedicated special education teachers and instructional assistants (such as myself) will be out of a job and likely out of the city, as we will all be competing with one another for whatever scraps remain.
I see it as similar to what happened to tech, albeit on an already smaller pay scale: because the competition for jobs theoretically will be fierce, people will accept worse jobs and worse conditions, because it beats having no job at all.
Which of course weakens the union, which of course the district knows.
So, this leaves us at the start of the school year terrified. We can’t plan schedules, because we don’t know what our programs will even be in a week. We can’t know if our veteran special education teams will be there to welcome the kids who have grown with their sped programs. We literally are forced into a likely strike, because our kids, jobs, communities, lives and livelihoods depend on it.
I don’t want to be on the picket line, but I almost certainly will have to be there. I’m just glad my fellow educators are willing to stand in solidarity for special education. I’m honestly writing this post as a form of therapy, simply because I’m so afraid of what’s to come if the union fails, and the district gets its way.
For legal purposes and for clarity: I don’t claim to represent the union, it represents itself. My opinions and words are my own.
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