Special Education Local Plan Areas (SELPAs)

January 7, 2022

California education issues to watch in 2022 — and predictions of what will happen

Test scores will fall, chronic absences will rise, school funding will soar, with arguments over how to spend it. Bet your Fensters on that.

John Fensterwald And Yuxuan Xie

July 30, 2021

Special education funding should be more streamlined, report finds

Funding should be based on students' needs, not attendance, to help achieve more equitable academic outcomes, researchers say.

Carolyn Jones

October 5, 2020

Special education funding should be less isolated, have more accountability, report finds

Schools can save money by combining services and blending funding, a new special education report says.

Carolyn Jones

June 1, 2019

Alarming absences in rural schools; big fight over new money for special ed

This week: Listen to students and counselors in rural California put a human dimension on disturbing data about why children struggling with poverty and isolation are staying out of school; and find out why a huge proposed increase for special education has become a major disagreement between the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

EdSource staff

May 28, 2019

California governor and lawmakers at odds over new special education funding

Legislators and advocates for students with disabilities praise the big increase that Gov. Newsom proposes for special education but reject his idea for spending it.

John Fensterwald

March 8, 2018

Special education funding is a morass; straightening it out may not be cheap or easy

Lawmakers take the first step: discussing the growing needs and disparities in funding.

John Fensterwald

March 23, 2017

Parents strongly object to report calling for local funding of special education

They fear districts wouldn't spend sufficiently on services for their children with disabilities.

John Fensterwald

April 19, 2015

Examining SELPA reports on seclusion and restraint

Edsource created easy-to-read downloadable data cards for most of California's Special Education Local Plan Areas.

John Osborn D'Agostino

April 19, 2015

Seven charts that put restraint and seclusion in context

Limited data and inconsistent reporting makes it difficult to understand what is happening on the ground.

John Osborn D'Agostino And Jane Meredith Adams