Special Education (SPED)
Caseloads, prep time, support, and more.
CUSD SPED teachers are top-notch professionals who dedicate their career to helping the most vulnerable children get a quality education – but unfortunately too often it feels like we don’t have enough resources or support. Once we are union, we will be able to negotiate a union contract that maintains and protects what we currently have and locks in needed improvements that will maximize support for our students and our colleagues.
We believe our students and colleagues would benefit if we do the following:
- Reduce caseloads in order to support overextended service providers and better serve our students
- Expand preparation time to do IEP paperwork and documentation
- Improve access to stipends for SPED educators
- Build better collaboration between administration and frontline providers
“With our union, we were able to win greatly improved caseload hard caps for mild/moderate education specialists that are among the lowest in the state. These protections and the monthly Joint Special Education Committee enshrined in our contract allow us to hold our district accountable on implementing practices that enable educators to best meet the needs of our most vulnerable students.” — Kyle Weinberg, Ed.D. Education Specialist, San Diego Education Association Vice President
“Through negotiations and collaboration with administration, we were able to win strong caseload caps. Additionally, we set up an ongoing monthly collaboration between upper admin and a small group of special education professionals to address issues and obstacles that arise. These improvements have helped us better support our students in Visalia.” — Alana Griffith, Education Specialist, El Diamante High School, Visalia Unified Teachers Association
“We were spending massive hours writing reports and doing IEPs beyond our work time. We are all proud that we go above and beyond for our students. But it can be exhausting. We were able to successfully negotiate extra duty pay for SPED educators that is equivalent to 3% of our base salary. That means this ‘stipend’ increases with our salary. It serves as an important bit of recognition for the hard work we do.” — Chris Saenz, Education Specialist, Mild/Moderate, Visalia Unified Teachers Association
Please reach out to the ACE Special Education Committee at acespecialed@gmail.com with any wins, concerns, or how to become more involved in ACE.
Links
CTA Special Education Issues Handobook
Educators’ Legal Rights to Advocate for Students with Special Needs
Related FAQs
Why are Clovis Educators unionizing?
Clovis unified educators are unionizing to ensure a strong voice in decisions that impact our students, schools, and professions. By establishing the Association of Clovis Educators, we can negotiate a union contract that can ensure that Clovis educators have a meaningful say in decisions that impact our classrooms, improve pay and benefits, help cut down on turnover, address work/life balance and establish job security. Having a strong voice in decisions is critical when decisions are being made about the health and welfare of our students, colleagues and school communities. Together, we can ensure Clovis Unified prioritizes people over programs.