The votes are in: SDEA members are ready to strike!

Yesterday, SDEA union educators finished up our first strike vote in decades. Members voted whether or not to give our elected board members the power to call a 1-day Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike if SDUSD continues to violate the union contract related to Special Education understaffing. An overwhelming 90.09% of SDEA members voted YES. 178 schools and programs submitted votes, representing participation from 88% of dues-paying members. After reviewing these results, the SDEA educator leaders on the Board of Directors voted to move forward with a 1-day strike in February, if the District does not fix their violations of Special Education caseload caps.

The turnout for this strike vote is just as significant as the yes votes. When we have the numbers, we have the power! A significant supermajority of SDEA members are ready to strike.

We’ve officially filed our Unfair Labor Practice over caseload overages.

SDEA leaders know educators are over caseload, because we hear it from our fellow educators every day! What we don’t know is exactly how over they are at this moment in time. In the process of trying to settle caseload grievances, SDEA staff and leaders have tried to get access to caseload numbers. It’s become clear that at this point not even the District knows exactly how overloaded Ed Specialists are. It is educators who know how overloaded we are, and it is educators who have voted overwhelmingly that we’re ready to do something about it.

With the difficulties of even getting access to caseload data, SDEA leaders have filed an Unfair Practice Charge over two big ways the District is violating our contract:

• Repeatedly ignoring Special Education caseload limits
• Not even providing SDEA members access to caseload data
  

The District is already preparing for our potential strike by getting out the message that we need more funding at the State and Federal level. Their main message so far is: We’re doing what we can. We need more funding. As educators and community members, we’ll need to keep asking: While we continue advocating for more funding… is the District really doing everything in their power? How are they investing our resources in the students we have NOW?  

One thing is clear: Violating labor law and overloading educators is doing nothing to get our students the support they need and deserve.

Educators and their students have waited long enough. Time’s up!

We’ll be showing up at the January 27 School Board Meeting to demand that District leadership stop violating our contract, and giving them one last chance to fix this before we go on strike in February.

Lots more information to come in January – including a February strike date! – but mark your calendars now:

✊Rally at the School Board

????️Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 4:00 PM

????San Diego Unified Ed Center – 4100 Normal Street