Greater Orange News Service

now add the students made to go to adult ed once they turn 18 so they don't show up on the drop out rate.
 

Here is another part of the story that is often not even mentioned.

DROPOUT RATE FOR DISABLED STUDENTS
Canyon HS 1 2.2%
El Modena, HS 20 35.7%
Villa Park HS 10 22.5%
Orange HS 23 51.1%
Richland HS 3 **

Now considering that many disabled kids who walked with certificates of completion because they did not pass exit exam because they can't read or write at a 10th grade level, this is an outrageous tragedy. My child has been in Special ed at OUSD for 5 years and his IQ has dropped 20 points. They do not teach learning disabled kids how to read or write with programs that work on these kids. Push them through the system accommodate and modify work so they can not pass the exit exam. In fact look at data quick and see how many disabled kids actually are tested and counted in the API.

Then look at the year to year numbers on the schools where the scores went up for disabled kids. It will show less kids counted on the schools where the scores went up.

Bottom line the the disabled kids at OUSD are terribly ignored as they are according to our school board "encroachments" on the general fund so why would they actually make an effort to find programs and services that will actually work on these kids to provide them with independence and self sufficiency and ready for post secondary education.

My OUSD dyslexic child learned how to read but it was not with out much effort and stonewalling on the part of the Pupil service department. Eventually it became evident they would not educate so it took an attorney to get them to pay for outside reading services.
For years the same program offered to my child that had already proven not to work. Spoke to the rep who sells the program last fall and was told OUSD had not provided teacher training or follow up for that program in years and many of the schools were using old versions of the program which were not appropriate for children with Learning Disabilities such as dyslexia. Also apparently not working on the minority kids either due to the lack of teacher training and not providing the programs with fidelity. Last year I know of two schools where the special ed teacher caseload was far over the legal limit. Those schools corrected when it was pointed out as a violation how many were not corrected for this?

Minorities are often in the spotlight and disabled kids are just ignored in hopes that the parents give in to the OUSD program or give up on their kids.

Pay now or pay later when these kids who are capable of learning drop out get in trouble and sit in jail on our dime.
 

There was a boy in Villa Park HS sent over to Richland each year right before STAR testing. (He had been dropped from Special Ed in elementary school without an evaluation.) The second year they were sending him to Richland he finally dropped out. Someone convinced him to go over to Rancho Santiago Junior Collage where they actually helped him learn and he graduated on time. Rancho Santiago is a good source for kids who OUSD won't bother teaching. They tutor and provide help to the kids. Another friend, not special ed could not do well in the ELMO math program so her father enrolled her at Rancho Santiago JC and she turned her C's into A's. Go figure how a kid has to go to the local collage to get their High school math curriculum so they can graduate and be prepared for post secondary ed.