Special Education

Re "District Wins Bid Not to Pay for Deaf Boy's Private School," March 15: Capistrano Unified wishes to serve all children in our school district, including hearing-impaired children, with the highest-quality programs available within the funding limits provided by the state. It must be pointed out that school boards have no independent ability to levy taxes or generate revenue. We in the Capistrano Unified School District were pleased with the judge's decision, which represented an important public policy statement: essentially that school districts would not be responsible for paying for extra and costly services that clearly go beyond the "appropriate" public education granted to all children.

Fran Arner-Costello received the "Our Heart for Your Heart" award from the United Parents for Children and Adolescents with Emotional, Behavioral and Mental Disorders organization. Arner-Costello has been coordinator for Ventura County Special Education Local Planning Area since 1988. She was honored for her dedication to children's education, rights and special-needs programs.

Local charter schools will receive more money to educate disabled students and more freedom from the Los Angeles Unified School District in the process, under an agreement approved Tuesday by the Board of Education. The board unanimously approved the pact, which will cost the cash-strapped school system millions of dollars because the district will now give charter schools state money that it previously kept for traditional schools' special education programs. But failing to make the deal could have cost the district many millions more if charters exercise a new right to contract for special education programs.

Can the charter school movement truly be in jeopardy because there is "No Marked Rise . . . in Test Scores Found" (Dec. 15)? As a parent at Westwood Charter (Elementary) School, I was shocked to find that the "charter movement is already in question" because test scores haven't risen significantly since the charter school movement began two years ago. When my husband and I had to decide where to send our son to elementary school, we considered ourselves very lucky. Westwood Charter School, our neighborhood school, had a great reputation.

"Parents Fight Changes in Special Ed" (Sept. 16) discusses how many parents of children needing special education services are balking at the efforts of the L.A. Unified School District to offer such services at public schools rather than paying for expensive private schools. Parents in West L.A. and the West Valley, in particular, are pursuing litigation because they can afford to and have private schools available to them. I realize that this process of subsidized private education can be abused by the rich and greedy.

Alfonso B. Perez, a veteran administrator who helped shape special education programs in the Los Angeles Unified School District and as principal guided his alma mater, Roosevelt High, during a tense period of Chicano protest, died July 2 at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla. He was 91. The cause was a heart attack, said his grandson, Paul Aguirre. Perez joined the district as a teacher for disabled students in 1947, when few resources were available in public schools for students with physical and mental impairments.

By definition, special-education students require special treatment throughout the typical school day. From the physical-education teacher who ensures that students with special needs get to participate, to the supportive principal or cafeteria manager who provides these students with jobs, efforts on behalf of the district's 1,860 special-education students is greatly welcomed.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is seeking new members for its commission on special education. The commission, established 13 years ago, advises the Board of Education on educational and employment programs and services for people with disabilities.

Re "In Special Ed, Accountability Is Left Behind," April 17: As someone involved in special education, I was sad to see the length given to Ruben Navarrette Jr.'s op-ed piece. What should have been a one-paragraph opinion based upon one day of experience in the role of a substitute was given a quarter of a page. The Times should have researched the funding of special education and how students with special needs are placed in programs before printing the inaccurate commentary. I find it offensive that Navarrette refers to special education, and thus the professionals working in the field, as some sort of contrived "scheme" seeking to avoid accountability.