Plan Urges Hiring of More Teachers
A team of special education consultants has recommended that the Los Angeles Unified School District spend $10 million to fill a shortage of 300 teachers qualified to teach children with physical or emotional disabilities.
The plan, presented to the Board of Education on Monday, includes a $2,500 stipend for each of the district’s 3,666 special education teachers plus a bonus of 1% to 3% of annual pay for each new teacher hired.
An additional $427,000 would be spent on more aggressive recruitment.
The proposal, drafted by consultants Louis S. Barber and Mary Margaret Kerr, was one of about 30 being devised by subcommittees set up to implement the Chanda Smith consent decree, which requires the district to bring its special education programs into compliance with the law.
The consent decree settled a 1993 class-action lawsuit filed by parents who alleged the district was not adequately serving its 69,000 special education students.
The board will consider the proposal at its Dec. 8 meeting.
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