California Administrator Faces Fire Over Special Education Funding Policy

The Bay Citizen (CA) (10/15, Bundy) reports that Lisa Miller, the head of the San Francisco Unified School District's middle school special education department, "urged teachers to re-evaluate whether to offer summer school to special education students as a way to cut costs, a move that special education teachers and attorneys say violates federal regulations." Miller, the Citizen reports, "said in a Jan. 4 email to her staff that the cost of summer school – known as extended school year, or ESY – had become 'exorbitant' and instructed all middle school special education staff not to authorize the service without her approval. ... The directive appears to violate the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which explicitly requires each child's special education plan to be agreed upon by the student's family, educators and disability experts, not district administrators."