Fresno Unified retaliates against parent with complaint

When pondering the experience of a parent with a special-needs child, I often am confronted by elements in my son’s school district who would rather seek the labor of least effort. Rather than deal with the agreements that were set at his individual-education program meeting, they look for shortcuts.

Like so many parents, there are people (at schools and the district) who try to state that we don’t do that at the high school level, or our programs are not meant for “those” students. Recently I filed a complaint, and much to my surprise, the sitting superintendent is committed to a positive dialogue moving forward, and resolving the issue of student access to programs here in Fresno Unified.

But alas, bureaucracy has reared its head in the form of intimidation, (ridiculous) attempts at retaliation, and the occasional silly attempts at stonewalling at the site level. Students with disabilities and without them deserve access to educational programs that may be well suited to their strengths, not obfuscation and bureaucratic stonewalling by program directors, etc.

What is the solution? How about teachers be allowed to teach the child, and parents are seen as partners, not adversaries?

This story was originally published September 14, 2016 at 2:44 PM with the headline "Fresno Unified retaliates against parent with complaint."