Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announces the creation of an organized crime commission during a May 24 news conference at the Capitol. The Governor’s Office recently updated a two-month backlog on her public calendar.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announces the creation of an organized crime commission during a May 24 news conference at the Capitol. The Governor’s Office recently updated a two-month backlog on her public calendar.
ALBUQUERQUE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Thursday signed an executive order establishing a new state office aimed at improving services for the more than 50,000 special education students across New Mexico.
She also announced a national search is underway for a director to lead the Office of Special Education.
The governor — who sidestepped the legislative process in creating the agency through an executive order — joined educators, families and top state education officials at Lowell Elementary School in Albuquerque to announce the effort, framing it as an opportunity to create streamlined services that stretch from birth through college.
“We want the world to know that this is a place that’s willing to do whatever it takes to make those differences for every single family, every single child, every single school,” Lujan Grisham said.
She the touted the office, which fall under the Public Education Department, as a point of contact for caregivers and students to advocate for the services they need, as well as a means of ensuring students with disabilities don't fall through the cracks as they transition from preschool to K-12 schools and then college or career programs.
The office also will be tasked with boosting the special education workforce.
The executive order directs the Public Education Department to do the following:
Establish the Office of Special Education, with an appointed director.
Require special education professional development for a wider range of educators.
Better coordinate special education with the agency.
More actively promote recruitment and retention of special educators.
Ensure comprehensive data collection, including on student disciplinary actions.
Require state technical assistance to districts and schools on key special education issues, including appropriate disciplinary actions and behavior management.
Transfer special education preschool to the Early Childhood Education and Care Department.
State lawmakers considered a bill to create such an office during this year's legislative session. The bill had support from disability rights advocates, but some school administrators were hesitant about a statewide Office of Special Education, saying it might diminish local control of education policy or create additional bureaucratic confusion for families as they navigate the special education system.
Despite backing by Lujan Grisham, the bill stopped short of a vote in the House of Representatives before the session ended.
The executive order allows Lujan Grisham to create the office — a change that has been on the minds of advocates and some lawmakers for years — without the obstacles and delays posed by the legislative process. She said New Mexican students can't wait any longer.
“I’m not waiting one more minute to get the services and the supports and the education that every student in New Mexico needs,” the governor said.
Too often, the special education system is a waiting game for kids in need of services, said Valentin Anaya, a member of the New Mexico Developmental Disability Council's executive board.
Anaya's son, Valentin "Gogo" Anaya, is autistic. In first grade, Gogo qualified for an assistive communication device, a tablet with buttons to help him communicate his thoughts and needs. Anaya said it took years to get the device, more years to download the proper assistive communication app and even longer to ensure the hardware and software were compatible.
With a just week left in 11th grade, Anaya recalled, his son finally got a speech therapist who knew enough about the device to make it practical for Gogo to use.
Gogo will graduate Friday from Gallup High School. Anaya can't help but imagine how his son's life might be different if he'd had access to the assistive technology earlier in his education.
"It took 3,000-plus days to get that device that he qualified for in first grade," Anaya said. "Had he gotten the right attention — not just that device but the needed education — he might be delivering a valedictorian speech."
Amanda Vaughn, a high school teacher and a board member with autism advocacy and support organization Elevate the Spectrum, said the new office is intended to create "system-level change" to ensure students with disabilities get the appropriate services from public schools.
Vaughn, an Albuquerque native who has autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, said the agency should help empower students and caregivers to better access the services they need.
"As a student who had an [Individualized Educational Program] who had to figure it out myself, one of the things I was seeing was access for students to understand this process better as well," Vaughn said. She was referring to a federally required document that outlines the services and education plan for each student enrolled in a public school special education program.
The new Office of Special Education is one-stop-shop designed to ease the confusion of accessing disability services, Lujan Grisham said.
She said students and caregivers will see a name and phone number, a group of workers dedicated to helping them and a means to connect with often-siloed executive branch departments.
“This is an elevation of special education,” Lujan Grisham said.
