OAKLAND — Ten of the 12 candidates seeking one of the four open seats on Oakland Unified’s school board shared their thoughts on the rarely discussed subject of special education recently.

The event was held at the former Cole Middle School in West Oakland, which is now used to house special ed and police services for the school. It was the first time Oakland school board candidates have ever made special education the primary focus of a forum, the district said.

Close to 100 residents, along with some educators and district employees, attended the forum.

In District 1, Don Macleay is challenging incumbent Jody London. In District 3, incumbent Jumoke Hinton Hodge faces Benjamin Lang, Lucky Narain and Kharyshi Wiginton.

In District 5, incumbent Roseann Torres is up against Mike Hutchinson and two who did not attend the forum, Huber Trenado and Mike Assid. In District 7, incumbent James Harris is being challenged by Chris Jackson.

Parents of special education students described some challenges they face in educating their children.

Those include problems in getting their children to school, getting a response from the district when they have concerns, and getting responses from district lawyers rather than administrators when dealing with their issues and complaints over money the district spends on lawyers and consultants.

Here are some responses from candidates in Districts 5 and 7; comments from candidates in Districts 1 and 3 will be published later.

“The problem is that it’s just an act, just words on paper if we don’t put them into action,” Harris said of the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. “Make it a first consideration.”

“There is no one quick-fix solution,” Harris said, citing how at Grass Valley Elementary — “a hidden gem in my district” — what educators needed to continue what he described as exemplary work in special education turned out to be adding a single full-time position.

“We are going to figure this out. The disservices to special ed students has been going on since before I was born. Say what you want about Gov. Brown, he gave us a process,” he said.

His challenger, Jackson, after noting it was only relatively recently that special needs students were even included in the school system in some states, suggested caps on staff caseloads and “real leadership” to offer special needs students an education more equal to what the rest of the district’s 37,000 students receive.

Jackson called for engagement at a one-to-one level, as opposed to community meetings. He alleged district budgets are not transparent.

“It’s almost like our district is afraid of our parents,” he said.

“If we’re giving the money to lawyers instead of spending it on children, that’s inappropriate,” District 5 incumbent Torres said, citing growing numbers of students diagnosed as autistic or otherwise in special education.

“I’m going to continue to have town halls,” Torres said, reminding the audience that she has hosted more than 300 in her four years on the board.

She said California was once sixth in the nation in per-capita student education funding, but it is now 46th, and blamed Proposition 13. “So that’s a problem,” she said.

“We have to reduce class sizes,” she said.

Citing a 161 percent increase in autism diagnoses in recent years and noting that one in nine incoming students require special education, she spoke out against what she called over-identifying children of color as requiring special education.

“Everything that’s happened in the past four years is on the school board,” said Hutchinson, her challenger. “Lots of groups of students have not gotten their fair share of resources. I will do things differently,” he said.

“I don’t think the district is doing a good job with transparency,” Hutchinson said; he called for seeking debt forgiveness for the district and a stop to consulting costs.

“It’s unacceptable for our leaders to say we can’t do better unless we get more money, even if it’s true. We have a legal and moral obligation; we have money in our city. We can do so much better,” he said.

If elected, he promised, “we are going to direct the superintendent.”

“We need to have an overall comprehensive plan, authentic community engagement; re-prioritize the budget; and put an end to privatization,” he said.

Contact Mark Hedin at 510-293-2452, 408-759-2132 or mhedin@bayareanewsgroup.com.