COURT MONITOR FLUNKS L.A. SPECIAL EDUCATION.

Byline: Jennifer Radcliffe Staff Writer

The Los Angeles public school system has made virtually no progress in improving instruction for its 85,000 special-education students, and its first 12 months under a federal consent decree amount to a ``lost year,'' an independent monitor said Thursday.

The progress report by Carl Cohn, a former Long Beach schools superintendent, warns that drastic measures must be taken in the Los Angeles Unified School District to meet the 18 provisions of the consent decree by a June 30, 2006, deadline.

``To date, the district has made limited or no progress toward most of the outcomes of the modified consent decree,'' he wrote. In some areas, its performance has regressed.''

LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer insisted that special education remains one of his administration's top priorities.

Though the district's resources are strained, Romer said he aims to comply with the requirements by the 2006 deadline.

``If we are to obtain the goal of getting out from the decree, we have to push hard,'' he said. ``We're after this hard, but ... if you're not careful, you'll have people throwing their hands up in certain areas.''

Other officials, however, conceded it will be difficult to comply with the decree's requirements in just 18 months.

``It's a long-distance run at a very fast past,'' LAUSD general counsel Kevin Reed said.

The consent decree is the result of a civil-rights lawsuit filed in 1993 on behalf of Chanda Smith. It contended that the district violated the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act when it allowed the 17-year-old girl to fail 10th grade twice before conducting tests to determine that she had the academic skills of a second-grader.

The resulting consent decree, which was modified last year, sets very specific goals for gauging the success of the LAUSD's special-education programs. They include:

--Increasing the percentage of special-education students who score at basic proficiency or higher levels on state English tests from 17.8 percent now to 27.5 percent by the 2006 deadline.

--Raising the percentage scoring at basic or higher levels in math from 18.3 percent now to 30.2 percent by the deadline.

--Decreasing the percentage of special-education students suspended for six or more cumulative days from 8.6 percent now to 2 percent in 2006.

Donnalyn Anton, associate superintendent of special education, said it will take a continued change in the district's culture, which once relegated special-needs students to separate corners of campuses.

``It's past practices that we all grew up with in this district that need to be obliterated,'' she said.

Cohn's report advised administrators to help employees break through bureaucratic barriers so they can catch up with the goals. Talk must translate into action, Cohn wrote.

``Despite the early rhetoric from the district's senior leadership about the importance of the modified consent (decree), there is little evidence that the special-education reform has become a fundamental district priority at the same level as the school construction program or the Open Court Literacy Initiative,'' Cohn wrote.

Board members said they must be more vigilant in considering how their decisions will affect students with special needs, who account for about 12 percent of total enrollment and roughly $1 billion of the district's annual budget.

``It isn't just a one size fits all,'' LAUSD board member Marguerite LaMotte said. ``It's a districtwide emphasis that needs to be placed on this.''

While progress has been slow, the report noted areas of success, including the percentage of disabled students taking the state tests and the number of teenagers having legally required plans developed to help their transition out of high school.

``The rapid success of these efforts provides an instructive example of the type of progress that the district can achieve when it engages in a systemwide collaborative effort while holding principals and schools accountable for success,'' Cohn wrote.

Jennifer Radcliffe, [phone]

jennifer.radcliffe(at)dailynews.com