No school for Seattle kids Wednesday as teachers prepare to strike; union talks stall

The last Seattle Schools strike in 2015 lasted five days. In the late 1980s, a strike lasted three weeks.

Seattle teachers authorized a strike on Tuesday, and now the first day of classes will be canceled as negotiations between the union and district continue.

Student meals will be provided at some school sites; sack lunches will be available for pick up 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Scroll down a little ways on this webpage to see which school sites are distributing food.

A major focus of contract talks is special education.

Seattle has a reputation for keeping students with disabilities segregated from their typically developing peers, especially students with more significant disabilities. The district says it’s time for that to change, and they propose serving students in general education much more of the time, with additional support staff in the classroom to make it work.

There is distrust among educators that the district will provide the necessary special education supports that would make its inclusion model work. They point to failed efforts by the district in the past.

The union balked at the district’s proposal, saying it needs to be worked out with staff and parents and that it came out of left field, late in negotiations.

The teachers union also wants more instructional assistants for special education students, which they say will help more students spend more time in general education classrooms.

An example given was an elementary school teacher with 25 students who now must instruct three students with severe special needs. Those students typically have paraeducators assigned to them, but if the district does not manage to hire those paraeducators, due to staff shortages, the teacher could find themself in a tough position.

The union also wants smaller class sizes and case loads for support staff, including more nurses, counselors and social workers. They say that’s critical given the stresses children have been under during the pandemic, and especially when schools were closed. And they say school staff have been dealing with a lot of burnout.

Wages are also perennially on the table, and the union says school staff need pay increases to increase hiring and retention rates.

Outwardly, Seattle parents appear to be siding with the teachers. They say they trust educators to demand working conditions that benefit students, too.

Teacher wages are also being discussed; with housing prices and general inflation, teacher wages don’t go far in this region, especially if staff want to live in Seattle, where they teach.

Others have spoken out in favor of the district’s special education inclusion proposal, and say that the district is trying to do what has long needed to happen in Seattle — for students with disabilities to be served much more often in general education classrooms.

They’re backing the district on that, which is a major point of contention for the two sides. And others don’t trust the union after what they feel was far too long in virtual learning during the pandemic, when other districts returned to in-person learning long before Seattle staff agreed to return.