Happy trees grow from healthy soil. For our students, that means healthy classrooms.



This year, educators are struggling to create the healthy classroom communities Tacoma youth deserve in special education and early education. 



Nowhere is this significant underinvestment in resources more profound than in our elementary Learning Resource Classroom, or LRCs. LRC educators create and implement specially designed instruction for students with unique learning needs. LRC teachers tailor unique experiences (the soil) that help students with learning disabilities grow and learn (happy trees).

LRC caseload sizes should have triggered the (re)hiring of paraeducators at the start of the school year, the district has failed to do so in adequate numbers. (Those paras had been laid off last spring)

Not having enough paraeducators means that students in LRC classrooms are not receiving the individual and small group support they need and deserve. LRC teachers have sacrificed their own planning time, lunch breaks, afternoons, and evenings to try to fill those gaps.

But healthy classrooms cannot be built on the exploitation of educators. Healthy classrooms cannot be builtwithout the resources our students need.



We call on Tacoma Public Schools to invest in elementary LRC classrooms—and all early education and special education programs— across the city. It’s time to hire enough paraeducators and teachers to build healthy classrooms for every student and every educator.



Please show your solidarity by joining our “digital picket” and sign our open letter to Tacoma Public Schools demanding healthy classrooms for our LRC educators and their students.