US Special Education and Disability Laws and Information
Section 504, Rehabilitation Act of 1973 - basic protection against discrimination
US Education Department on Section 504 - on protections for discrimination in education
US Department of Education IDEA Resource Site
IDEA Annual Report to Congress 2021 - where the rubber hits the road
Department of Education Seclusion and Restraint Site - there are lots of problems and it is widely underreported.
Department of Education Seclusion and Restraint Policy Site
Department of Education Civil Rights Data Collection - data down to the school level... here's Palo Alto Unified
Wrightslaw - Special Education Law and Advocacy
California Education and Disability Information
Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Act a pioneering piece of disability legislation that was passed in 1978 as a follow on to an earlier 1969.
California Annual Special Education Reports under IDEA - for each school district. These aren't pretty or easily usable
California School Dashboard - you can get information on Students with Disabilities (IEPs / Protected under IDEA), no data on students with 504 plans. As of 2022, the last data for which detailed academic and other data is provided is 2019 before COVID. Mostly demographic data more recently.
California Dataquest site - more California Education databases!
Department of Education Civil Rights Data Collection - data down to the school level... here's Palo Alto Unified
SF Bay Area Disability and Special Education Resources
Palo Alto Special Needs Moms - Facebook Group
Palo Alto Special Education (PAUSD) - the school district special education department
Stanford Autism Center - at Stanford Children's Health is dedicated to providing specialized clinical services and advancing research in Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Stanford Neurodiversity Project
Santa Clara Office of Education SELPA (Special Education Local Plan Area)
Decoding Dyslexia Peninsula Mail list - ddcanorthpeninsula@gmail.com
Down Syndrome Connection Bay Area
CHADD of Northern California - Children and Adults with AD/HD
Other California Disability Resources
Lanterman Coaltion - a pinneering California organization protecting the rights of those with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
Decoding Dyslexia (California) - We strive to raise dyslexia awareness, empower families to support their children, and improve resources for students with dyslexia in California public schools.
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) - is a leading national civil rights law and policy center directed by individuals with disabilities and parents who have children with disabilities. (Note - based in Berkeley, CA)
Disability Rights California (DRC) is the agency designated under federal law to protect and advocate for the rights of Californians with disabilities.
The State Council on Developmental Disabilities (SCDD) is established by state and federal law as an independent state agency to ensure that people with developmental disabilities and their families receive the services and supports they need.
Department of Developmental Services
CuriOdyssey - great hands on science museum and zoo that has "Super Families" days for families with disabled children.
Friendship Circle - great programs for disabled kids here in Palo Alto
Barron Park Donkeys - for kids who like animals
Burgess Pool - public pool in Menlo Park. Open more of the year than our Palo Alto public pool
Other Disability Resources
Why doesn't all Dyslexia look the same? - an excellent slide deck discussing the different types of Dyslexia as well as information about special education (IEPs and 504 plans).
SF Bay Area School District Education Metrics
My plan is to add metrics for all of the school districts in the SF Bay Area. I've started with mine, but if you would like me to add yours sooner rather than later, let me know: steve@disabilitymediawire.com
Palo Alto Unified School District Special Education Metrics
Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) Special Education / Students With Disabilities Demographics (2019,2022)
| Jurisdiction | School Year | Total Student Population | Students With Disabilities Population | Percentage Students with Disabilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAUSD | 2021 | 10754 | 1087 | 10.1% |
| PAUSD | 2019 | 11992 | 1144 | 9.5% |
| California | 2019 | 6,186,278 | 725,412 | 11.7% |
| PAUSD | 2022 | 10509 | 1069 | 10.2% |
| California | 2022 | 5,892,240 | 745,513 | 12.7% |
Question - is PAUSD under identifying SWD
Issue - data is not available on students who only have 504 plans
PAUSD Chronically Absent
| Jurisdiction | School Year | Total Students | Total Absentee Percentage | Total Absentee | Students With Disabilities | Absentee Percentage SWD | Absentee SWD | SWD Absentee Percent of Total Absentee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAUSD | 2019 | 7996 | 5.9% | 471 | 867 | 9.5% | 78 | 16.5% |
| California | 2019 | 4,279,575 | 10.1% | 429207 | 559,824 | 16.3% | 91251 | 21.3% |
| PAUSD | 2022 | 6785 | 10.1% | 685 | 766 | 18.8% | 144 | 21% |
| California | 2022 | 4,009,260 | 30% | 1202778 | 560,749 | 39.6% | 222056 | 18.46% |
This is depressing across the board. There is a substantial excess number of SWD absentee students.
PAUSD Suspension Data
| Jurisdiction | School Year | Total Students | Total Suspension Percentage | Total Suspensions | Students With Disabilities | Suspension Percentage SWD | Suspensions SWD | SWD Suspension Percent of Total Suspensions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAUSD | 2019 | 12347 | 0.9% | 111 | 1313 | 3.1% | 41 | 36.7% |
| California | 2019 | 6,362,507 | 3.4% | 216325 | 823,805 | 6.2% | 51075 | 23.6% |
| PAUSD | 2022 | 10933 | 0.7% | 77 | 1216 | 3% | 36 | 46.75% |
| California | 2022 | 6,066,021 | 3.1% | 188047 | 847,770 | 5.4% | 45780 | 24.3% |
This number usually surprises people by how high it is. The proportion of SWD suspensions vs. total suspensions is appalling and should be addressed.
You'll note the lack of an "issue" in the California data as they don't capture disproportionality problems.
PAUSD English Language Arts Data
| Jurisdiction | School Year | Overall Performance Relative to State Standard | SWD Performance Relative to State Standard | Performance Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAUSD | 2019 | +78.8 | -17.9 | 96.7 |
| California | 2019 | -2.5 | -88.1 | 85.6 |
| PAUSD | 2022 | +76.6 | -43.4 | 120 |
| California | 2022 | -12.2 | -97.3 | 85.1 |
Compared to the state, Palo Alto SWD are doing well.
However, their performance gap grew from 2019 to 2022.
Unfortunately, the state performance is DISMAL.
The Gap analysis shows (or attempts to show) how PAUSD is serving its SWD relative to their general education peers.
PAUSD Mathematics Data
| Jurisdiction | School Year | Overall Performance Relative to State Standard | SWD Performance Relative to State Standard | Performance Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAUSD | 2019 | +83.2 | -25.7 | 108.9 |
| California | 2019 | -33.5 | -119.4 | 85.9 |
| PAUSD | 2022 | +68.3 | -57.7 | 126 |
| California | 2022 | -51.7 | -130.8 | 79.1 |
Same assessment as for ELA. California over all is DISMAL (when are people going to be ashamed of this?).
The gap between the performance of SWD in Palo Alto is also notably larger than for the state as a whole.
It has also gotten worse in 2022 from 2019.
PAUSD College/Career Readiness
| Jurisdiction | School Year | Overall Readiness Percentage | SWD Readiness Percentage | Performance Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAUSD | 2019 | 74.2% | 24.7% | 49.5% |
| California | 2019 | 44.1% | 10.8% | 33.3% |
This metric is kind of cryptic. It does serve as an interesting alternative to graduation data. Some other states are actually doing tracking of students after graduation which is an excellent idea (notably, Arizona).
Again, the big issue is the gap between general education and SWD.
(Sigh... California as usual. No data on this in 2022).
NOTE: I haven't gone through and de-duplicated SWD in the overall population which will increase all of these gaps in performance.
PAUSD Graduation Rate
| Jurisdiction | School Year | Overall Graduation Rate | SWD Graduation Rate | Graduation Rate Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAUSD | 2019 | 95.4% | 81.8% | 13.6% |
| California | 2019 | 85.8% | 64% | 21.8% |
| PAUSD | 2022 | 96.3% | 83.9% | 12.4% |
| California | 2022 | 87.4% | 75.2% | 12.2% |
There was a huge improvement in state graduation rates for SWD.They also improved slightly for PAUSD.
Yay!... though with California, one want's to ask more questions.
Final Comments
- This shouldn't have to be so hard. We should be able to pull out data on students with disabilities and parse them both between each school and the state as well as with other schools.
2. The data is not cleanly separated between "students with disabilties" and their general education peers. This winds up under-counting the gap between the two student populations (I can go back and do this by hand.. but not today)
3. The other largest population across California, and in PAUSD, that has a massive performance gap are English Learners (who are still learning English). We do not currently have any way to include the overlap between these students and students with disabilities (though the school district could do this analysis).