Mendocino County Grand Jury
• 2024-2025
Final Report 07/10/2022 Mendocino County Grand Jury 2021-2022 The Mendocino Unified School District Special Education
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 10 findings
F1
The SELPA cost pools used to defray legal costs effectively hold school districts harmless because unbudgeted legal costs are back-filled from these SELPA carve- offs.
Related Recommendations (2)
R1
the SELPA shall analyze its legal fee cost-pool policy to make sure that it is not inadvertently causing districts to exercise policies and practices not in accordance with state or federal laws, or best academic practices. (F1-F3)
R2
the SELPA shall annually track trends, identify strategies and challenges, and develop a plan to identify school districts with extraordinary legal settlement carve-offs. Those districts shall then receive extra SELPA training, attention, and support to decrease the need for legal actions of any kind related to special education. (F1-F3)
F2
The GJ could find no evidence that the policies and procedures of the SELPA effectively monitor or analyze how well their legal settlement cost pool policies positively or negatively affect the learning outcomes of the students in our county school districts.
Related Recommendations (2)
R1
the SELPA shall analyze its legal fee cost-pool policy to make sure that it is not inadvertently causing districts to exercise policies and practices not in accordance with state or federal laws, or best academic practices. (F1-F3)
R2
the SELPA shall annually track trends, identify strategies and challenges, and develop a plan to identify school districts with extraordinary legal settlement carve-offs. Those districts shall then receive extra SELPA training, attention, and support to decrease the need for legal actions of any kind related to special education. (F1-F3)
F3
The SELPA governing board pays attention to budgets but there are no apparent professional repercussions or consequences for school district superintendents who overuse SELPA legal fee cost-pool set aside funds.
Related Recommendations (2)
R1
the SELPA shall analyze its legal fee cost-pool policy to make sure that it is not inadvertently causing districts to exercise policies and practices not in accordance with state or federal laws, or best academic practices. (F1-F3)
R2
the SELPA shall annually track trends, identify strategies and challenges, and develop a plan to identify school districts with extraordinary legal settlement carve-offs. Those districts shall then receive extra SELPA training, attention, and support to decrease the need for legal actions of any kind related to special education. (F1-F3)
F4
There is no CAC parental representative on the SELPA Governing Board, as required in the SELPA bylaws. The SELPA has failed to fill this vital role for the past two years.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
the SELPA shall immediately offer a per diem, mileage reimbursements and health benefits to an eligible CAC parent to fill the vacant parent position on the SELPA governing board. (F4)
F5
The MUSD parents had to seek and pay for their students’ special education evaluations and accommodations and then sue the district to force compliance with federal special education law. The MUSD paid $55,576 in reimbursement, travel, professional consultant, and legal fees from January 2021 to June 2022 to satisfy settlement agreements. The $55,576 was paid out of the MUSD general fund which reduced the funds available for general education.
Related Recommendations (2)
R4
the MUSD shall present a plan in the first quarter of the 2022-23 school year that uses the $40,000 annual revenues earmarked for professional development for the next five years to reduce the number of parent legal actions to zero and provide training for all staff, administrators and district trustees that improve all practices, including campuswide harassment, related to the delivery of special education services to all applicable students. Administrators and Trustees shall train with a focus on special education legal requirements, budget implications and the importance of early educational interventions. (F5-F8)
R6
the MUSD shall develop a more transparent budget by the 2023-24 school year which clearly outlines special education service costs, legal costs defrayed by SELPA, unbudgeted legal costs that encroach on the district’s general fund, and staff development costs associated with special education training. The Superintendent shall make an annual report to the Board of Trustees on these associated special education budget items. (F5-
F6
The IEP provides early interventions and are key to long term educational success and social-emotional development, and yet MUSD’s IEP practices were indefensible in the Office of Administrative Hearings.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
the MUSD shall present a plan in the first quarter of the 2022-23 school year that uses the $40,000 annual revenues earmarked for professional development for the next five years to reduce the number of parent legal actions to zero and provide training for all staff, administrators and district trustees that improve all practices, including campuswide harassment, related to the delivery of special education services to all applicable students. Administrators and Trustees shall train with a focus on special education legal requirements, budget implications and the importance of early educational interventions. (F5-F8)
F7
The MUSD does not adequately inform parents of the availability of diagnostic methods such as the free North Coast Diagnostic Center clinical service, that are available to all students at the parents’ request.
Related Recommendations (2)
R4
the MUSD shall present a plan in the first quarter of the 2022-23 school year that uses the $40,000 annual revenues earmarked for professional development for the next five years to reduce the number of parent legal actions to zero and provide training for all staff, administrators and district trustees that improve all practices, including campuswide harassment, related to the delivery of special education services to all applicable students. Administrators and Trustees shall train with a focus on special education legal requirements, budget implications and the importance of early educational interventions. (F5-F8)
R5
the MUSD shall make a more concerted effort to help parents understand their parental rights by holding local monthly parent CAC meetings via zoom and in person, on the topics related to special education rights and support systems for families. (F7)
F8
Neither the MUSD Principal nor the Superintendent demonstrated any deep understanding, knowledge, or perceived concern of the ramifications of special education classroom delivery or the legal cost encroachments to the district budget.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
the MUSD shall present a plan in the first quarter of the 2022-23 school year that uses the $40,000 annual revenues earmarked for professional development for the next five years to reduce the number of parent legal actions to zero and provide training for all staff, administrators and district trustees that improve all practices, including campuswide harassment, related to the delivery of special education services to all applicable students. Administrators and Trustees shall train with a focus on special education legal requirements, budget implications and the importance of early educational interventions. (F5-F8)
F9
When there is a settlement for violation of the IEP contract there is no public reporting mechanism so that the residents of the school district could easily discern the level of SpEd compliance at the school district, or the actual associated legal costs to the taxpayers.
Related Recommendations (1)
R6
the MUSD shall develop a more transparent budget by the 2023-24 school year which clearly outlines special education service costs, legal costs defrayed by SELPA, unbudgeted legal costs that encroach on the district’s general fund, and staff development costs associated with special education training. The Superintendent shall make an annual report to the Board of Trustees on these associated special education budget items. (F5-
F10
Confidential settlement agreements contain non-disclosure clauses and make it very difficult to trace legal costs in the school district budget. The MUSD managers state that the reason for obscure budget line items is due to the legal requirement to maintain the family's rights to confidentiality. These line items could be shown in the school district budget with names redacted. Due to use of NDAs the GJ could not ascertain whether or not similar problems existed in other school districts in this county.
No recommendations for this finding