Court to Hear Objections to L.A. Schools Special Ed Plan

Several legal challenges have been filed to the pending settlement aimed at overhauling special education in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Those challenges deemed appropriate by a federal court judge will be aired at the first hearing on the settlement, scheduled for April 15 in U.S. District Court. Senior U.S. District Judge Laughlin E. Waters will then have the option of either accepting or rejecting the settlement.

Attorneys for the school district and the plaintiff, who hashed out the agreement during the past two years, said they were encouraged that only a handful of formal complaints apparently had been lodged.

“These are tough issues and people naturally focus on their own perspective,” said attorney Bonifacio Garcia, who represents Los Angeles Unified. “The district has to think about the whole district.”

The most detailed objection was filed Monday by attorney Peter A. Schey of the Center for Human Rights & Constitutional Law, also a member of the legal team opposing Proposition 187, the anti-illegal immigration measure.

Schey, whose disabled daughter attends a district school, filed objections on behalf of a variety of groups that believe the settlement is too vague and does not provide for adequate input from parents.

In an 80-page document filed with the court, Schey said his clients fear that their rights “are about to be severely compromised by a settlement proposal that is long on procedure but palpably short on substance.”