LAUSD committee highlights growth in student participation in IEP meetings and showcases school practices

Carla Griego, chair of the Los Angeles Unified School District special education committee, opened the meeting by framing student participation in Individualized Education Program meetings as a district priority that affects roughly 70,000 students served by the division of special education. She introduced presentations from central office staff and three school sites to show how students are being invited into IEP conversations.

Dr. James Coutts, coordinator for moderate, severe and least-restrictive-environment programs, told the committee the district uses a "matrix of participation" to tailor invitations and participation options by age and need. He said preliminary signature-based counts show about 8,000 students participated in 2022–23 and that through early March 2025–26 the district had recorded more than 13,300 student participations, putting the district on pace to meet or exceed last year’s 16,842 participants. "We moved from one-fifth or one-sixth all the way to one-third possibly in just a matter of years," Coutts said,…