In December 2007, KPS4Parents, a non-profit child advocacy organization, embarked upon a unique endeavor: to resolve challenges facing students with special needs in mostly rural school districts who required special education placements that were not available in their districts of residence. The problem was that children who resided in some of the County's more rural school districts had limited choices when it came to placements.

For children whose needs were too severe for Resource Specialist Program ("RSP") services, their only other placement options at the time were Special Day Classes ("SDCs") operated by the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education ("SLOCOE"). SLOCOE only operated SDCs for children with severe handicaps, emotional disturbances, and medically fragile conditions. Not all of the children who needed more intensive instruction than what they could receive in RSP had needs so severe that they required SLOCOE SDCs. They had a choice between "not enough" or "too much," where special education law requires that each child with a disability gets what is "just right" based on each child's unique needs.

KPS4Parents built www.slocoesdc.info as a vehicle to encourage discussion amongst the stakeholders in special education in San Luis Obispo County, including parents, students, educators, and the tax-paying public. You can visit the original website by clicking here.

We are happy to report that since this site was launched, work that KPS4Parents did with the California Department of Education ("CDE") and efforts on the part of both CDE and the San Luis Obispo County Special Education Local Plan Area ("SELPA") have resulted in a change in local policy regarding special education placements for children whose needs fall in between the extremes of RSP and a SLOCOE SDC. We have updated this site to reflect the new policies and procedures, which became effective during the 2008-09 academic year. To learn more about the new rules, please click here.