Sacramento County Grand Jury
• 2025-2026
The Natomas Unified School District Special Education Progam Struggles to Meet Student Needs
⚠️ 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 8 findings
F1
Natomas District has received a citation from CDE for significant disproportionality in chronic absenteeism, which adversely affects students because students who are chronically absent miss critical instruction time.
F2
The CDE has identified Natomas SELPA as a special education program that overidentifies African American/Black students as emotionally disturbed and that has an excessive number of African American/Black special education students missing school.
F3
The Grand Jury has found, though interviews and data, that African American/Black students tend to receive more severe punishments by suspensions at some Natomas schools. This is problematic as it indicates African American/Black students are missing school at a higher rate than their peers.
F4
The Grand Jury finds that the suspensions and chronic absenteeism issues result in African American/Black students’ exclusion from a rigorous public school education.
F5
The Grand Jury finds the District’s discipline matrix may delay notification to case managers of a student’s behavioral issue until the student is facing possible suspension, resulting in some special education students unnecessarily missing school.
F6
Natomas case managers do not consistently write transition plans as required by federal law, which deprives special education students of opportunities to prepare for life after high school.
F7
The 2025-26 SELPA plan does not accurately reflect the provision of transition services to students, which could give the impression the SELPA is doing nothing.
F8
The Grand Jury finds a lack of highly trained special education staff, due to high turnover and low retention, resulting in a shortage of experienced, fully credentialed special education teachers. This is problematic as research clearly shows schools staffed with experienced, fully credentialed teachers tend to produce students with higher academic achievement.
Recommendations 6
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R1aThe Grand Jury recommends the District bring the special education community together to address disproportionality by including its critics, students, parents, general education staff and community in the process for developing a plan to address disproportionality. The planning process and finished product should be completed
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R1bThe Grand Jury recommends the District ensure transparency and public participation through community meetings, newsletters, reports to the school board and press releases to the media. This should begin by Oct. 1, 2026.
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R5The Grand Jury recommends the District modify the discipline matrix by October 1, 2026 to include the case manager earlier in the process to permit teaching of alternative behaviors directly and scheduling of IEP meetings to address behavior before it progresses, and notify all school administrators of the change.
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R6The Grand Jury recommends the Natomas SELPA begin monthly, site-based IEP audits by November 1, 2026 to determine trends in IEP errors and implement training at the site level on a consistent basis to ensure transition plans are written and other IEP errors are corrected.
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R7The Grand Jury recommends Natomas amend its SELPA plan by October 1, 2026 to include the transition services the District does provide including the WorkAbility I program and referrals to the State Department of Rehabilitation.
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R8The Grand Jury recommends the District’s administration consider by January 1, 2027 creating an educational pathway that would train high school students to become classroom instructional aides upon graduation and, possibly, coordinate with the District’s existing teacher preparation program to become credentialed teachers.
Agency Responses 1
Government agencies' official responses to this report's findings and recommendations. Click on a response to see the structured breakdown.
In the Press 3
Press coverage of this report, automatically tracked.
Grand jury flags disparities for Black students with disabilities in Natomas - Yahoo
Yahoo
· June 30, 2026
Grand Jury Puts Natomas Unified on Blast Over Special Ed Failures - Hoodline
Hoodline
· June 30, 2026
Natomas Unified schools fall short in special education services, grand jury finds - Abridged – PBS KVIE
Abridged – PBS KVIE
· June 30, 2026