Special Ed Teacher Hadn’t Completed Required Credentials Upon Hire

When the Redwood City School District hired special education teacher Alexia Aliki Bogdis in August 2006 she had her teaching credentials, but didn’t complete her special education credentials until three years later.

Bogdis was booked into the county jail on Feb. 4 for allegedly kicking, slapping and depriving students of food. She faces five counts of child cruelty and four counts of battery at Roosevelt Special Day Classes.

At a board meeting in September 2006, the trustees unanimously approved to waive specific credential requirements. The board did this again in September 2007 and 2008. She was teaching six students with five aides.

The district explained that there is a current shortage of special education teachers in the state. Spokeswoman Naomi Hunter said this was common practice to grant a waiver while the teacher pursued the necessary additional training for a special education credential. The organization Teach California has called this shortage “critical” and provides information as well as recruits potential teachers.

It is the local district’s ultimate jurisdiction which teachers’ credentials to waive, not the state’s, according to Marilyn Errett of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

“This will definitely be a wake-up call,” said Pamela Blatt, the San Mateo County Office of Education’s Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) administrator. “We will all be very mindful of training we provide.”

Waivers can be renewed as long as the teacher is working toward the necessary credential and has completed a sufficient number of units, Hunter said. Alexia Bogdis received waivers while she worked on her Education Specialist Instruction Credential in Early Childhood Special Education.

Bogdis ultimately received her special education credentials in May 2009, according to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, and had her credentials when the charges were filed against her.

She also went on to receive Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) training to teach autistic children social, behavioral, verbal and reasoning skills. Some students are required to have this training as a result of their individualized education plan (IEP.)

Though she was not officially certified by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, she was trained in the ABA procedures by Dr. Scott Yarbarough of the Gateway Learning Group in San Francisco. Yarbarough is a board certifed behavior analyst and oversees the program, training which the district has begun providing to staff.

ABA uses careful behavior observation and positive reinforcement or prompting to teach each step of a behavior, according to Healing Thresholds, an autism information site. A child’s behavior is reinforced with a reward when he or she performs each of the steps correctly.

In 2009, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing added an additional “Special Autism authorization” for teachers to expand their teaching scope. This is a 3-unit class teachers must take at an accredited institution, which is usually a semester or a quarter.

Districts typically pay for credential courses, and the county provides regular crisis intervention training that must be renewed every two years.  

 “Teaching autistic students requires much support and intervention to often simply maintain any sort of control in class,” Blatt said.

The district does not require a ratio of teachers to students, but Bogdis had five additional aides for the six-student classroom.

In place of typical report cards, special education teachers must submit regular progress reports to parents mandated by state law as part of each child’s individualized education plan (IEP). Parents can additionally request progress reports at anytime and must give the district 30 days notice.

Special Education teachers receive no additional counseling for their jobs.

Parent Sharon West, who has a child in the Roosevelt Special Day classes said this type of behavior under any conditions is unforgiveable, but she wanted to provide another perspective.

"While the government continues to cut funding to our schools and individuals with disabilities, the results are systems that are flailing under an already cracked infrastructure," West said. "It is incredible that we don’t hear about more teachers cracking under the strain."

For more news about Redwood City and surrounding areas, including unincorporated San Mateo County, follow us on Twitter and "like" us on Facebook.

Get Patched in daily by signing up for our newsletter.