{"id":152984,"date":"2026-01-28T07:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T07:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/152984\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T07:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T07:24:16","slug":"san-diego-teachers-rally-for-increased-special-education-staffing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/152984\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego teachers rally for increased special education staffing"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5\/KUSI) \u2014\u00a0With the possibility of a one-day strike looming, educators with the San Diego Education Association\u00a0rallied ahead of the San Diego Unified School District meeting on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Earlier this\u00a0month,\u00a0SDEA teachers shared <\/a>they will hold a one-day Unfair Labor Practice strike in February if the district did not improve special education staffing.\u00a0The SDEA\u00a0represents\u00a0more than 6,000 educators, who voted to\u00a0authorize\u00a0the strike.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s rally was their last appeal to the public before the strike, according to organizers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchools are vastly underfunded and significantly understaffed which causes a crisis not only in the special education\u2014and those classrooms, and those children and their families\u2014but to the greater school community and ultimately\u00a0the\u00a0community of us as citizens in the City of San Diego,\u201d Golden Hill Elementary Second Grade Teacher Christopher Dobbs said.<\/p>\n

\"SDEA<\/p>\n

SDEA educators rallied ahead of the San Diego Unified School District meeting. (KSWB\/KUSI)<\/p>\n

\"SDEA<\/p>\n

SDEA educators rallied ahead of the San Diego Unified School District meeting. (KSWB\/KUSI)<\/p>\n

\"SDEA<\/p>\n

SDEA educators at an art build event to prepare for their rally and one-day strike. (Brooke Anderson)<\/p>\n

\"SDEA<\/p>\n

SDEA educators rallied ahead of the San Diego Unified School District meeting. (KSWB\/KUSI)<\/p>\n

\"SDEA<\/p>\n

SDEA educators at an art build event to prepare for their rally and one-day strike. (Brooke Anderson)<\/p>\n

Educators plan to strike on Feb. 26, which has prompted the district to close school for the day.\u00a0According to SDUSD leadership, educators\u2019 salaries and benefits are among the highest in San Diego County and 10%\u00a0above the California average.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur educators are among the highest paid in the region, receive comprehensive benefits fully funded by the\u00a0District, and work in classrooms with some of the lowest class size ratios in the region,\u201d\u00a0Superintendent Fabi Bagula shared in a statement.\u00a0\u201cWe have put concrete solutions on the table that remain under consideration, and we remain committed to bargaining in good faith and reaching an agreement that keeps students at the center.\u201d<\/p>\n

SDEA leadership believe that special education caseload limits have been exceeded for years,\u00a0violating their contract and pushing educators to \u201cethical breaking points.\u201d They are also advocating for increased\u00a0wages and stability in SDUSD schools.<\/p>\n

Dobbs shared people may not understand the extent of services these teachers provide. He said they serve students with visual and auditory disabilities, ADHD,\u00a0autism\u00a0and other disabilities.\u00a0He added that all of these services need proper funding.<\/p>\n

SDUSD has been public<\/a> about a projected $47 million deficit they are facing for the next school year. The district\u00a0spends $400 million yearly on special education\u00a0services;\u00a0only $125 million\u00a0comes from\u00a0the state and federal government.<\/p>\n

District leadership called on Governor Gavin Newsom and rallied to receive more funding for these programs. However, educators are still concerned about the impacts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe remaining $275+ million must come from our general fund,\u201d Bagula said. \u201cThis is not sustainable, and it is not fair to our children and families. This is why I have begun forming a coalition of community leaders committed to advocating for our fair share and addressing the systemic challenges facing special education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dobbs said it\u2019d be important if, \u201csuperintendents and school boards joined us in our fight to\u00a0request\u00a0that the state provide\u00a0significantly\u00a0more funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day that Special Education remains understaffed is another day students lose critical support they cannot afford to miss,\u201d SDEA Educator Evelyn Avalos shared in a statement. \u201cThe district must respect the contract they agreed to and adequately\u00a0staff\u00a0Special Education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO (FOX 5\/KUSI) \u2014\u00a0With the possibility of a one-day strike looming, educators with the San Diego Education…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[75339,68399,74,76,75,75340,7025],"class_list":["post-152984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-brooke-anderson","tag-educators","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sdea","tag-special-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}