If you ask EC teachers in this school system how conditions are in their schools and then ask the same of EC teachers in the surrounding county/city school systems, you just might get very different answers.

But when it is the school board that voted for RIFs and cuts to EC departments to save financial face who are now acknowledging that severity of conditions with our EC teachers, then it really must be that bad.

The cuts that EC departments endured and continue to endure were egregious at best.

Chief Academic Officer Paula Wilkins noted that EC students are instructed according to their Individualized Education Program, which is developed by a team of people. She also reiterated that this data is a year old, and said she’d work to pull more recent figures.

We must do more to make sure that our exceptional children with law-binding IEPs get the services they require before lawsuits from special needs parents start gaining traction in the court system and ultimately make the district pay more in the end.

We don’t need new data to show us what we have neglected to do.

It’s been there for years.