LAUSD FILM ADDRESSES DISABILITIES.Byline: - Holly Edwards A Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. documentary chronicling the persistent stumbling blocks facing students with physical or developmental disabilities developmental disabilities (DD), n.pl the pathologic conditions that have their origin in the embryology and growth and development of an individual. DDs usually appear clinically before 18 years of age. will be shown tonight at California State University, Northridge CSUN offers a variety of programs leading to bachelor's degrees in 61 fields and master's degrees in 42 fields. The university has over 150,000 alumni. It's also home to a summer musical theater/theater program known as TADW (TeenAge Drama Workshop) that leads teenagers through an . ``Going to School'' describes classroom experiences through the eyes of several students - a deaf seventh-grade boy who uses a wheelchair, a 12-year-old girl paralyzed par·a·lyze tr.v. par·a·lyzed, par·a·lyz·ing, par·a·lyz·es 1. To affect with paralysis; cause to be paralytic. 2. To make unable to move or act: paralyzed by fear. from the waist down by a bomb in El Salvador, and an autistic autistic /au·tis·tic/ (aw-tis´tik) characterized by or pertaining to autism. boy attending third grade at Wilbur Avenue Elementary School in Tarzana. The film is intended to show the benefits of including students with disabilities in traditional classrooms instead of segregating them in isolated special-needs classrooms, said Ruth Holzman of Sherman Oaks, a member of the executive committee of the Chanda Smith Consent Decree. Creating the educational film was one of the requirements imposed on the LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) following the 1996 decree, which settled a 1993 lawsuit filed against the school district by the parents of student Chanda Smith, Holzman said. ``All of the kids in the film responded positively to the experience of being in regular classrooms,'' said Holzman, who has an autistic son in fourth grade at Dixie Canyon Elementary School in Sherman Oaks. ``The problem is we have teachers and administrators who are uncomfortable with special education students and are part of a systemic, hostile environment facing kids with disabilities.'' Holzman said Dixie Canyon Elementary's special education program is very effective, yet some schools continue to isolate such students physically and psychologically. The film will be shown at 7:30 p.m. in the university business building. Admission is free. |
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