Del Norte County Office of Education:
Re-thinking special education for equity
This isolated coastal district has a high rate of poverty and a student population that is half BIPOC, including one of the largest Native American communities in Northern California.
Project profile: Special education, while a wonderful support for eligible students, can be a labyrinthine process that has the potential to disenfranchise parents, guardians, and teachers, over-identify eligible students, and disproportionately impact BIPOC families. Our project will explore the root causes of the disconnects in special education that are negatively impacting our district’s American Indian, Hmong, and Latinx families and students, families experiencing socioeconomic hardships, teaching and support staff, and overall program.
By using a human-centered design approach -- coupled with a root cause analysis and continuing improvement cycles led by diverse teams -- we believe we can address the core issues and redesign the process, providing a higher level of education and a better experience for students, families, and staff.
“This design sprint helped our diverse leadership team see the problem, as well as the solution, from many different perspectives. We were encouraged to engage with people—not data or ideas—and those conversations are truly transformative. We can’t wait to apply what we’ve learned to the critical work of supporting our students, their families, and our staff.”
— Design team, Del Norte County Office of Education
Design is an iterative process where we share work in progress. Over the course of two months, Del Norte County Office of Education practiced design thinking and created a prototype. See below for a video of this early prototype.
Year 1 Update
To learn more about this project contact Jeff Harris at jharris@dnusd.org