SFUSD to Open New Special Education Program for Students With Extensive Needs

The new program through San Francisco’s County Office of Education will be the first option within city limits for the student population, and aims to address a longstanding complaint from families, the teachers’ union and board commissioners that SFUSD spends millions to contract out services it could provide itself.

The county will open two classrooms to serve 16 students between fifth and 12th grades with extensive needs in October, and double its size the following year, according to Jennifer Jimenez-Payne, SFUSD’s head of special education.

The program will have an assistant principal, two extensive support needs teachers and a number of specialized staff, including five paraeducators, a speech pathologist and an occupational therapist. Jimenez-Payne said the district began hiring this month and has selected two qualified teachers internally.

According to Su, the new program will reduce the district’s reliance on non-public schools and cut down on how far students have to travel to get educational services.

SFUSD is federally mandated to be responsible for all students’ special education within its geographical region, or SELPA, but the district alone cannot provide all services. Currently, SFUSD has about 160 students with individualized learning plans, or IEPs, that it cannot meet internally.

School board member Jaime Huling said the district pays upwards of $200,000 a year per student enrolled in an NPS program. The district estimated in 2025 that it would spend a total of $42 million on those services and other independent agencies and consultants that provide special education support.

A large portion of that cost goes toward transportation, since many of the programs require students to travel three to four hours round-trip. Parents say long travel times affect their kids’ attendance and increase isolation.

Jimenez-Payne said about 80 students fit the qualifications of the new extensive needs program, and 26 are in the pipeline for the 16 spots opening next fall. The county will use a rolling enrollment model, and more students will become eligible as the program expands.

Huling asked if the district will have the capacity to meet all of its eligible students’ needs, and potentially expand to offer seats to students in other local school districts who also travel hours away for services.

She said the program, which will be located at the former site of the Edwin and Anita Lee Newcomer School in Chinatown, has space for up to 11 classrooms, which could serve about 88 students.

Su said that there could be opportunities to repurpose classrooms or wings of other school sites for more special education classrooms in the future.

“We have to go slow to go far,” she said during Tuesday night’s board meeting. “This is the first time we’re doing this, so we want to do it right.”