San Diego teachers end strike over special education

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San Diego teachers ended a district-wide strike after reaching an agreement with school board leaders to invest in special education staff and services.

The teachers’ union had planned a strike on February 26 to protest overcrowded special education classes inadequate student service and lack of support for teachers.

“These issues that teachers organized to highlight the importance of supporting students with special needs were really critical, especially considering that the percentage of students in our district with IEPs has increased from 13 percent to 18 percent,” said San Diego Unified School District Board President Richard Barrera.

It would be the first time in 30 years that San Diego teachers have gone on strike, but the district announced Friday that it had agreed to meet the teachers’ demands.

“We are proud to have reached this agreement with the district, mobilizing with families and community partners in schools throughout the district to advocate for our special education requests for our highest-needs students with disabilities,” said Kyle Weinberg, president of the San Diego Education Association. “We believe this contract lays the groundwork for much-needed improvements in the recruitment and retention of the faculty who will fill these positions.”

The new contract includes planning time for special education teachers, stipends for overcrowded classrooms, and educational funds for teachers earning special education credentials. It also includes additional student support and advocacy services for the LGBTQ+ community. However, the agreed wage increase will not take effect until the issue of state funding is resolved.

Last week, San Diego Unified officials pressed lawmakers to increase funding for special education and restoring $5.6 billion in school funding which Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to keep in order to balance the state budget. California’s state funding formula is based on a revenue forecast for next year, and Newsom wants to accept a lower revenue figure and then make up the difference if more funding is received.

Other sections of the governor’s proposed budget would add funding for schools, but the deferred payment of $5.6 billion would cut San Diego about $85 million, Barrera said. The district has committed to raising wages by 2.5 percent over the next two years after state education funding is restored, and to apply the increases retroactively.

The San Diego Unified School District is the second largest school district in California, with approximately 95,000 students, second only to the Los Angeles Unified School District. The last teacher strike in San Diego was in 1996, when teachers walked out of class for a week to protest wages and school decision-making.

The San Diego union reached an agreement just as San Francisco teachers ended a four-day strike last week. The action in San Francisco included picketing, demonstrations and negotiations and ended in a $183 million settlement that included wage increases and full health care funding.

A one-day strike planned in San Diego next week has accelerated negotiations over special education requirements, Barrera said.

“The organizing work we’ve seen from our teachers in recent months has been important to amplify the issue and make it clear that teachers are prepared to strike if we don’t get this agreement,” he said.

The San Diego Accord will include intervention counselors to support the social-emotional needs of all students. It would also implement greater support for students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), legally binding documents that detail services for special education students. It also adds five days of time outside the classroom for education professionals to focus on case management, conducting assessments and working with families.

San Diego Unified also seeks to retain educators and fill vacancies by offering higher wages and reimbursement to teachers who earn special education credentials. In addition, you have agreed to maintain full health coverage for employees, spouses and dependents.

Wyberg said the compact also calls for a legal center for immigrant students on campus, affirming that students and staff have the right to be called by their preferred names and pronouns, and creating gender-neutral bathrooms in schools.

Despite the tentative agreement with the district, Weinberg said the union will continue to push for more investment in education.

“We need to advocate to district leaders that the state fairly funds schools in the richest state in the country,” he said.

The new labor agreement means all schools will be open on Thursday, Feb. 26, and that the district will no longer have a March 9 scheduled back-up date. The school board will vote to ratify the agreement next week, and teachers union members will vote between next week and March 23.

“These negotiations, while tense at times, produced an outcome that will stabilize our teaching staff and ensure that all students are supported in the classroom,” San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Fabi Bagula, Ph.D., said in a statement.

Teachers demonstrated last month before the strike to demand funding for special education. The San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) sets a ratio of 20 students per teacher, below the state standard of 28 students per teacher. Weinberg said at the rally that those ratios are a source of pride for teachers, but the district has not met its own standards, so many teachers have more special needs students than they can safely handle.

Teachers commented that class sizes often exceeded standards and included students of widely varying cognitive levels, making it difficult to create appropriate lesson plans and teaching methods for all students. Some classes include students with behavioral problems and there aren’t enough resources to handle the workload, they said.

The new agreement offers teachers extra pay for each additional student over the 20-to-1 limit, and the stipend increases with more students over the limit, Barrera said.

“One of the things the overflow grant does is create a financial incentive for the district to hire more special education teachers,” he said.