My name is Cassie Mills and I am advocating for Carmel Unified School District to meet their legal and ethical duty to provide appropriate educational programming for students who are differently abled at Carmel Middle School and Carmel High School. I need your help to ensure that children with special needs in our community are not excluded and are provided with access to their rightful free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment, alongside their typically developing peers here in Carmel & Carmel Valley.

The Carmel Unified School District Mission Statement clearly articulates: “we believe everyone deserves the opportunity to develop his/her potential,” “everyone deserves respect,” and that “it takes a whole community to educate a child.” Sending students who are differently abled to neighboring communities to have their educational needs met constitutes discrimination, and is in direct conflict with this stated mission. Furthermore, inclusion of children who are differently abled improves not only their outcomes, but the outcomes of their typically developing peers. All Carmel Unified students need and deserve the opportunity to interact with and learn from their peers with special needs. Everyone belongs in our community. 

We call upon the Superintendent, Ted Knight; Director of Special Education, Steve Gonzalez; and the members of the Carmel Unified School Board to provide appropriate special education programming for students with moderate to severe disabilities that will allow them to grow, learn, and thrive in their home community during middle and high school, without sending them far from their homes and the meaningful relationships that they have developed throughout their elementary school years. Children with special needs have been successfully included in our elementary schools and have the right to stay in their own communities for middle and high school.

#everyonebelongscarmel