Changes are coming to special education classrooms within the Sacramento City Unified and Elk Grove Unified school districts, which announced they are terminating their contracts with Point Quest, the agency that provided behavioral aides to their campuses.

Following the termination of these contracts, Point Quest announced it is laying off 166 behavioral aides — 66 from Elk Grove Unified and 100 from Sacramento City Unified.

"What we're experiencing is segregation of disabled people in society and that starts with schools," said Amanda Scott, CEO and president of EG SPEAKS, an advocacy group in Elk Grove for disabled children.

About the change, Elk Grove Unified said it is "working to expand its reliance on its own employees to meet the needs of students."

Jencie Ferraro, the director of EG SPEAKS, is concerned about how this change will impact classrooms.

"I worry about parents that don't know that they are trying to pull and shift and move supports for our students," said Ferraro. "Stating that they are going to rely on their district employees? Which district employees? Does that mean they are going to hire?"

Sacramento City Unified said it is cutting contracts to cut costs as the district faces a $43 million budget deficit. 

The district is hosting a hiring event on October 29 to fill hundreds of vacant 1-to-1 instructional aide positions with employees versus contracted ones.

"Why do you think there are so many vacancies for these positions? I think the pay scale is not enough," said Ferraro. 

Sacramento City Unified said filling those positions has been a major challenge in recent years.

"If we could staff these positions, we wouldn't need the contracts," the district said.

In the meantime, SCUSD is continuing to contract behavioral aides with two different agencies: Covelo Group and ProCare Therapy.
It claims the change will not reduce services to students, and it is continuing other contracts with Point Quest for other services, such as nonpublic Schools, and some other related services, such as speech. 

"A lot of our students need that support, and they need to keep their dignity," said Ferraro. 

Point Quest told CBS13 that it is in renewal discussions with the districts and is unable to share site- or program-specific details at this time.

"While this has been a difficult decision, our commitment to our mission remains steadfast: to support students with special needs and ensure they receive the high-quality care they deserve in their educational settings."