Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1518807
For short videos of the nominators of this year 's Human Rights Award winners, go to youtube.com/californiateachers. Caption for photo on page 32: Front row, from left, CTA Secretary- Treasurer Erika Jones; Olive Garrison (Kern High School Teachers Assn.); William H. Scott (Porterville Educators Assn.); CTA President David Goldberg; Jessica Potts (Irvine Teachers Assn.); CTA Vice President Leslie Littman. Back row, Human Rights Awards Selection Committee member and CTA Board Member Robert Ellis; Denisha Jordan (UTLA); Deborah Schneider Solis (UTLA); Gabriel S. Alegre (San Mateo Elementary Teachers Assn.); Human Rights Awards Selection Committee members Camille Butts and Maya Walker; Lori de St. Aubin (San Lorenzo Education Assn.). Deborah Schneider Solis has been a special edu- cation teacher at the elementary level for 19 years. She has been a strong advocate for students with exceptional needs and has combined her union work with that advocacy. She is currently on the UTLA Board of Directors representing special edu- cation teachers. As a resource specialist, she models a partnership with general education teachers where she team teaches as opposed to a program where students are pulled out for instruction. She has developed strate- gies and relationships to foster an environment where students with exceptional needs feel no different than other students and have access to curricu- lum and activities. Schneider Solis has helped organize parents of students with excep- tional needs, fostering lasting relationships and helping train parents to advocate for their chil- dren. She has also been a strong advocate for how the expansion of unregulated charters and specifically their exclusionary practices toward students with disabilities has had both a fiscal and programmatic impact on traditional public schools. She helped orga- nize and expose how these exclusionary practices led to extreme increases in the overall caseloads for the entire district. She has testified in Congress and the State Assem- bly for the need for more funding for SPED and has been active in organizing for fully funding IDEA. Schneider Solis has "led the charge to create spaces for opportunity — not only for growth, but for voice" — for special ed educators, said UTLA Pres- ident Cecily Myart-Cruz, who nominated Schneider Solis for the award. "With that voice, when we went on our solidarity strike in 2023, Debby and the [SPED] committee put forth bold ideas that are now being implemented in our schools." Deborah Schneider Solis United Teachers Los Angeles STUDENTS WITH EXCEPTIONAL NEEDS HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD 37 A P R I L / M AY 2 0 24