INITIATIVE

Organizing Schools to Serve Students with Disabilities

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In the year following the publication of Getting Down to Facts II, PACE heard from stakeholders in Sacramento, California and across the state that more knowledge on how to better serve students with disabilities was needed to guide policy and practice. The absence of practical knowledge on systems to support special education juxtaposed with the urgency that decisionmakers were placing on designing new special education policy made it well-suited as a topic of a PACE Policy Research Panel. On August 13, 2019, PACE hosted a meeting of key actors in special education policy, practice, and research (see below) to reimagine how students with disabilities are served in California and to identify the knowledge needs to make that vision a reality for all students. While discussions of special education in California often focus on issues of special education finance, the emphasis of the PACE Policy Research Panel on Special Education was to clarify the type of system we seek to build to serve all students—including students with disabilities.  The full set of publications were released on February 18, 2020, with a webinars on February 27, March 5, and March 10 to share findings. 

Recent Initiative Publications
Policy Brief Powell Feb 2020
This brief identifies the steps necessary to realize an integrated system of care, reviews two current approaches, and makes recommendations—including specifying policy reforms that would promote interagency collaboration, integration, service…
Policy Brief Farkas Feb 2020
This brief examines California’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), which is a framework designed to identify and assist students performing below grade level. MTSS involves at least three tiers of support; Tier 2 includes personalized…
GDTFII Brief Special Ed
California’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), which highlights accountability for student success, has identified the progress of special education students as an area of particular concern. Statewide, the LCFF outcome data show that students…
Policy Research Panel Members