I would like to applaud The Voice for covering the issue of inclusion and I want to wish Ms Sheckley all the luck in the world with her school. I would also like to invite Ms Sheckley to join with parents in the area to make sure that inclusion and high standards become a reality for all students. SELPA 1 CAC is a government mandated parent advisory committee to special education in Mountain View, Los Altos and Palo Alto (I am the chair) and the Learning Challenges Committee is a Mountain View based PTA organization that brought Calm Down kits to every classroom in MVWSD. I invite Ms. Sheckley to join either or both of these groups and help bring inclusion to every child. We at SELPA 1 CAC and the LCC have been working with the Inclusion Collaborative to bring resources into classrooms and training to teachers. The middle schools in Mountain View will be starting inclusive co-teaching in core subjects in the fall, with all students, including disabled students being co-taught by a general education and a special education teacher team.
Also, the team of parents at Eureka!Inclusive is trying to get approval for a fully-inclusive charter school accessible to all students in the county - which is a very important project that can serve as a model for every school in the county. There is hard work being done on many levels, and a lot more that needs to be done, especially for students in special education who also come from English language learning households or low socio-economic backgrounds.
Please join us at www.selpa1cac.org or check out learningchallenges.lamvptac.org. Also, please call Marc Berman and Jerry Hill and ask for approval of AB3136 to improve special education funding and have special education preschools available for all students who need it!

Thank you so much for pursuing this work, Tanya! And I am so sorry for the loss of your beautiful daughter Eliza - there is nothing more heartbreaking & I wish that her memory will forever be a blessing to you. I'm the parent of a 19 yr old w/ hearing & vision impairment who graduated from the Palo Alto public schools - so I know the IEP process & its pitfalls all too well. I currently co-chair the SELPA1CAC along w/ the phenomenal Christine Case-Lo (who posted above). All of our children need & deserve opportunities to be fully included in their local school, to reach for their highest potential academically, and to be part of the fabric of the community physically & socially as well. You are 100% correct about the "expectations gap". I started volunteering to help other parents/families w/ children w/ disabilities many years ago - because disabilities do not discriminate. The process of getting my kid what he needed was an extremely difficult road - even for someone w/ education, resources, & support. So I know the process is SO much harder for families who are not as fortunate as ours.

This article states that "public schools... have no legal obligation to tailor coursework to ensure special needs students perform to the best of their abilities." --- because the wording of FAPE is subjective - a Free APPROPRIATE Public Education is open to interpretation. Public schools ARE legally obligated to tailor coursework appropriately for a child's needs - but IDEA has never been fully funded, and CA public schools are even further hurt by low funding due to Prop 13. The schools are legally obligated to provide an appropriate education - but not to ensure that our kids achieve their BEST educational outcomes. You are right the expectations are horrifically low. This year, after my kid successfully completed his 1st year away at college, we received a survey from the school district to see how IEP kids were faring a year later - the choices on the survey included, community college, various states of living on state-provided disability programs, minimum wage jobs (eg. McDonalds), and incarcerated. No "typical" kid gets asked if he's been incarcerated a year after high school graduation! And this is indicative of the low expectations for our kids throughout our state.

I applaud what you are doing in creating UP Academy; and I sincerely hope that ALL children in Mountain View, and all of Santa Clara county will have the opportunities that my kid had going through school, and that they should have these same opportunities without having to apply & pay for private school. I am helping out on a proposal for a fully inclusive free public charter school for Santa Clara county (including San Jose, Mountain View, etc.) - it is https://www.eurekacharter.org - I hope you will support us in helping make this opportunity available for a free appropriate public education so that all families in our county, regardless of resources, will be able to place their child in a supportive inclusive & welcoming environment that will help them live up to our best expectations for them.

Please feel free to reach out to us - we'd love to talk to you more about making this a reality for all families w/ children w/ disabilities, regardless of resources.

Thank yoU!