Officials with Hemet's teachers union said they are getting ready to file a complaint against the Hemet Unified School District over its treatment of special-education students.

Administrators admit the district does have problems, but say they are working to solve them.

There are about 1,900 special-education students in Hemet schools, special-education director Gary Goldamer said.

This school year, the district budgeted $11.3 million to serve the students, including $8.9 million in state and federal money and $2.4 million in district funds, district fiscal services director Bill Clark said.

Some parents said their children have received better services this year.

Harris Moore, a special-education teacher at Acacia Middle School and chair of the Hemet Teachers Association special-education committee, said progress has been made. But he also said the department's budget is too small, which prevents the district from hiring needed teachers and specialists.

The union filed a complaint with the state Department of Education two years ago on similar grounds. That brought about some improvements but not enough, Moore said.

He said psychologists and speech and language therapists have to handle too many students. For example, Acacia's psychologist also works at West Valley High School and is responsible for more than 3,000 general- and special-education students, he said. Some therapists have about 85 patients.

Teachers also are overwhelmed, he said. State law requires resource specialists to have a maximum of 28 students. As of Friday, Acacia was over this limit by four students. District officials did hire a substitute teacher, but he quit, tired of traveling between three campuses, Moore said.

Kathy Cargo said she had to struggle to overcome the lack of resources for her son, Rick, 19, who goes to West Valley High School. For example, her son's aide cannot take breaks or lunches because there is no backup aide, she said. She now is considering putting her son, who suffered brain damage after falling head first from a bike, in a private school, for $1,000 a week, which the district would have to pay.

"My son has only three more years in the system and then he's out on his own," she said. "They haven't done much for him so far."

Hemet Unified spends $1.6 million on nonpublic school placements for special-education students, the most of any school district in Riverside County, said Richard Beck, assistant superintendent of business last week.

That in turn takes money away from programs within the district, Moore said.

Goldamer said he is working to change the district's budget.

He would like to add two psychologists next school year, one of whom would be assigned exclusively to West Valley High, he said. He has been trying to recruit an additional speech therapist. He also has a proposal to have substitutes work at a maximum of two campuses.

Goldamer said Hemet has had trouble recruiting because there is a shortage of qualified special-education teachers statewide.

The special-education director also said he believes parents, teachers and principals are communicating better this year.

Several parents agree.

"It's very good to have a director who's willing to work with parents," said Liz Johnson, whose son, David, 20, is hearing-impaired.

He can lip-read but cannot speak and, there was difficulty getting a sign-language interpreter last school year at Hemet High School. This year, it took only one week to get him one, his mother said.

"I'm really happy," she said. "I've never had this much success before."

Ioana Patringenaru can be contacted by e-mail at ipatringenaru@pe.com, by phone at (909) 487-2275, Ext. 255 and by fax at (909) 654-3978.