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This is Part 2 of a series on the history of special education at Los Angeles Unified School District. Read Part 1, A Well-Intentioned Start: The Earliest Special Education Programs at LAUSD, for context on the earliest programs.
Following the success of the earliest special education programs conducted for blind and deaf students and students confined to tuberculosis sanatoriums, LAUSD began to build schools specifically for physically disabled students. The first of these opened in the 1930s. It would be a long journey from these first separate special education schools to the mainstream and individualized education that many disabled students receive today. It would also bring LAUSD in conflict with federal special education laws.
Expansion for physical disabilities
Prior to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, there were no federal requirements for buildings to be accessible to wheelchairs, so many students in wheelchairs simply couldn't enter normal public schools. This resulted in many students being excluded wholly from public education. While LAUSD's system wasn't perfect in any respect, it did provide physically disabled students with ways to take classes at home, in hospitals, or in specialized schools.
Cambria Street School, founded in 1895 as one of the first elementary schools, opened a portion of its classrooms for "crippled children" in 1932. Classes at the Children's Hospital, Convalescent Home, General Hospital and Orthopedic Hospital were subsequently opened as branches. Atlantic Boulevard School was transitioned to solely physically disabled students in 1935. High school classes for physically disabled students were being held at Metropolitan High School by 1937.
(opens in a new tab)The first elementary school specifically built for students with physical disabilities opened in 1937 as the Washington Boulevard School (later renamed Salvin Elementary School). High school students with physical disabilities got their own high school when Widney High School for the Physically Handicapped was built in 1939. Classes at the Children's Hospital continued, and the school was named Carlson School in 1951.
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Rather than building new special education schools with separate administrations, LAUSD often opened new branches of the same school, either with a new building or in the building of a school that already existed. For example, Widney High had several branches in different parts of Los Angeles by 1960, including the main branch on Polytechnic's campus and a branch in the Valley on Cleveland High School's campus.
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Counter to the trends in blindness and tuberculosis, which decreased throughout the 20th century, students considered crippled spiked sharply in the 1940s and 1950s as the polio epidemic raged. Programs offered more options for these students in response, including a 1960 expansion of high school correspondence courses for students taking classes at home, but these programs never matched the education available to students in the regular, in-person high schools.
Dennis Cannon, a student in a wheelchair who attended Widney in 1960, planned to attend the adjoining Cleveland High School full-time for his senior year. He had previously taken classes, up to four per quarter, at Cleveland, and he needed certain classes only offered at Cleveland to prepare for college. Just when he had medical approval for the transition, the district implemented a rule that Widney students could only take two classes per semester at regular high schools. Dennis's pleas went only partially answered: he was able to take the last classes he needed, but he couldn't attend the school full time. The classes–Algebra III, Journalism, and Physics I–would be considered basic offerings in high schools today, which brings concerns for the quality of classes available to students restricted to taking classes at Widney.
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By 1965, there were 14 special education schools open: Miller and Widney High Schools; one branch of Widney High; and Lokrantz, Lowman, Blend, Bennett, Washington Boulevard, McBride, McDonnell, Pacific Boulevard, Hyde Park, Sellery and Shoemaker Elementary Schools. The predominance of elementary schools is striking.
(opens in a new tab)The first special education centers
Up to this point, many special education schools had specifically been designated for physically disabled students. In the late 1960s through 1980s, LAUSD opened schools for intellectual disabilities, listed as schools for "trainable mentally retarded” (TMR) students. The Banneker Special Education Center served students of all ages, the Leichman and Lanterman Special Education Centers served high school students and the Valley Special Education Center served elementary students. Other schools were switched over to the TMR label. For example, McDonnell Avenue Elementary, formerly classified only as crippled, was reclassified as "Orthopedically Handicapped and Other Health-Impaired, TMR" in 1981.
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This may or may not be all schools officially opened for intellectually disabled students. Unfortunately, the school records are inconsistent in noting whether a school was for special education, and, if it was, whether it had a specific purpose. Only sometimes are schools designated TMR, crippled, or physically handicapped on the record cards.
The terminology used in official designations in the record cards–trainable mentally retarded, educable retarded, crippled, physically handicapped–seems outdated and offensive today, but the terms have simply been replaced by newer ones. For example, the kind of hierarchy inherent in TMR school designations is still used today, even if it's in terms that aren't so obviously problematic. Consider trainable vs. untrainable mentally retarded, mild vs. severe disability and high-functioning vs. low-functioning autism.
These types of separations divide people and elevate a subset of disability that's more desirable and less stigmatized. However, these divisions don't exist from an objective perspective, and they can cause harm when applied. For instance, labeling a person high-functioning erases the challenges they have and may keep them from getting the support they need. On the other hand, someone labeled low-functioning may have abilities and strengths that they aren't allowed to use or develop independently due to their perceived need for support.
Other special programs
Cyesis (pregnancy) schools were sometimes classified under special education in LAUSD. They were opened under provisions for "necessary small high schools for physically handicapped students." Starting in 1972, students who became pregnant could take classes through Booth Home High School, a school associated with the Booth Maternity Group Home. Booth was a center for unmarried and teenage mothers run by the Salvation Army from 1900 to 1993. It included housing, medical care and schooling for women and girls sent away or abandoned in an era when unwanted pregnancies were hidden. When Booth closed in 1993, administrators cited changing trends(opens in a new tab) that pushed many pregnant teens into foster care rather than group homes. The school at Booth developed into Riley High School in 1975, and McAllister High School was later opened elsewhere for pregnant and parenting students.
Although gifted education is typically administered separately from special education today, there were questions at the beginning about its proper place. In 1960, the district conducted a survey to determine which programs should be a part of special education. They sent the survey to state departments of education, special education experts and professors of school administration. Some of the 19 categories asked about include "gifted," "orthopedically handicapped," "cerebral palsied," "emotionally disturbed," "foreign adjustment" and "remedial arithmetic" students. Many of the results were clear: over 90% of respondents said yes or no. In the case of gifted education, results were mixed: 59% of respondents said yes, gifted education is included in special education (Collection 1923(opens in a new tab), Box 1202, Folder 6. Major Report on Special Education Study, 1960.)
Because gifted education was sometimes classified with special education, some of those records are still placed with special education in the LAUSD board collection. For example, as early as 1967, gifted students could take computer classes and other supplemental courses outside of school time through the Gifted Children's Association of San Fernando Valley. The Association spoke before the board in 1967 in a segment devoted to special education.
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Jail schools were operated as evening classes in a number of jails throughout L.A. County from the 1910s through the 50s, and, in a rare instance of consistency, these were always filed under special schools (not special education). Welfare schools, opportunity schools, evening schools and schools without designation are also filed under special schools and sometimes special education, but the records don't note the particular purpose of these schools.
The push toward mainstreaming
LAUSD was progressive in some ways while remaining stuck in others. On one hand, their programs for blind students in the 1940s allowed the students to attend classes with their sighted peers almost the whole day. On the other hand, physically disabled students were still forced to attend separate high schools in the 1960s, even when students had a proven record of achievement at the regular high school.
This isn't to say that parents in the district didn't push for better. Beginning in the late 1950s, people petitioned the school board to integrate disabled students with nondisabled students. The board, however, was not convinced.
Mainstreaming refers to educating disabled children alongside their nondisabled counterparts whenever possible. Mainstreaming wouldn't be legally required until the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA), which mandated the "least restrictive environment" for disabled students.
The EHA was passed in 1975, and it created a system of individualized education for students with disabilities. It also created a grievance system, so that students and their families could contest education plans that they found inappropriate. This is the origin of the right to free and appropriate public education (FAPE), a right for disabled students that has been upheld in Supreme Court cases. The EHA was renewed as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990, the same year that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed.
All of these advances in disability rights were made possible by the tireless work of advocates and activists in the disability community, including students themselves. Throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, activists hosted sit-ins and demonstrations that brought about new protections, and they protested when promises weren't met and legislation went unenforced. Thanks to their efforts, disabled students are guaranteed a public education today.
(opens in a new tab)Limitations of law
Special education at LAUSD continued to expand with the requirements set forth by Section 504, the EHA/IDEA and the ADA. A district that was built predominantly on separating disabled students would have to grapple with the mandate to mainstream disabled students. Importantly, this system gave schools the responsibility for identifying students with disabilities and getting them the appropriate accommodations.
In 1993, Chanda Smith's mother sued LAUSD(opens in a new tab) for violations of the IDEA. Smith was a student with dyslexia, but her disability had never been properly screened for or addressed by LAUSD. Instead, she reached high school reading at a 2nd grade level. She failed 10th grade twice, but the district denied her mother's requests that she be placed in special education. Record-keeping errors meant that the high school had no record of the tutoring she'd received in middle school for a reading disability. Other parents joined the lawsuit, and the resulting class action suit alleged widespread failures to comply with the IDEA at LAUSD.
The US Department of Education investigated LAUSD in 1994 and found that the district was in violation of several parts of the IDEA. LAUSD agreed to an evaluation by an outside source as part of a settlement. Two teams spent 10 months studying the district and creating a report. Their results were damning. In the words of team leaders Drs. Lou Barber and Mary Margaret Kerr, "both Consultants are compelled to conclude that the District suffers from a pervasive, substantial and systematic inability to deliver special education services in compliance with special education laws" (Collection 1923(opens in a new tab), Box 1871, Folder 4. Chanda Smith v. LAUSD Consultants' Report).
They found that LAUSD had excluded special education from holistic consideration alongside general education, resulting in a marginalized and fragmented special education program with no unified oversight. LAUSD wasn't properly identifying or assessing disabled students within the timelines set by federal law. There wasn't enough staff in special education and many were insufficiently trained. The issues with district records that had caused problems for Chanda Smith were widespread–and in violation of federal standards. Students were over- and under-identified for special education based on race and ethnicity. Parents were not involved enough to give informed consent for special education. And finally, the district relied too much on separate special education classes instead of prioritizing mainstreaming.
The Chanda Smith Consent Decree shaped special education at LAUSD in the decades that followed. The consultants became administrators of the Consent Decree, tasked with implementing the recommendations from their report: administrative and organizational changes, hiring of new staff and review of noncompliant procedures. As a result of the Consent Decree, LAUSD began a special education newsletter, opened a special education telephone hotline and held annual public progress meetings. Following complaints that the district still wasn't holding up its end of the bargain(opens in a new tab), a modified Consent Decree required annual reports that monitored LAUSD progress using statistical metrics. In 2020, this monitoring finally ended.
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The changes forced by the Consent Decree were not without their controversies. The closure of specialized schools(opens in a new tab), especially for deaf and blind students, has drawn outrage from parents. The mandate to place students in the least restrictive environment leads to questions of when separate classes are warranted. For the sake of metrics, schools may feel pressured to mainstream students who would benefit from special education classes.
The LAUSD Board of Education Records collection(opens in a new tab)
ends in 2012, in the midst of the Chanda Smith Consent Decree era. Now that the district is no longer held to the Consent Decree, what does the future hold?
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A current debate, foreshadowed by the district's earliest issues in deaf education, is what the default form of deaf education should be(opens in a new tab)
in the district. Most deaf and hard-of-hearing students at LAUSD learn in mainstream classrooms using cochlear implants and hearing aids. However, cochlear implants and hearing aids can't truly replace normal hearing abilities, and some students are left behind by this approach. Similar to early LAUSD deaf education classrooms, students in these programs aren't allowed to sign.
An alternative offered by the district is the bilingual education program. Students learn both American Sign Language (ASL) and English. This ensures that students have access to both languages and can use whichever works for them. LAUSD recently made bilingual education the default for entering deaf students, rather than mainstream classrooms. Although parents still have both options available, critics argue that the change violates parents' rights to choose an appropriate education for their children.
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Whether the change will stick remains to be seen, but it could bring awareness to an educational option that was previously little known, even to the students who would benefit from it. Special education is not one-size-fits-all, and any position which claims that it is will harm disabled students.
For over 120 years, LAUSD's special education system has been evolving and, in many ways, improving. It's certainly not yet perfect, but it has come a long way from the earliest programs for deaf and blind students.
About the Author
Bri McKenna (she/they) is a Ph.D. student in the UCLA Sociology Department focusing on disability in legislation and education. Their master’s thesis analyzed how U.S. senators use references to disabled people in Congressional hearings, and their dissertation will look at disability, race and gender in U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments. In the summer of 2022, she was a research scholar in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT) (opens in a new tab) at UCLA Library Special Collections, where she delved into the history of education for disabled people in the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education collection(opens in a new tab).