WCCUSD Families and Educators Raise Alarms on Special Education Services
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At the November 19th WCCUSD Board of Education meeting, United Teachers of Richmond members and families joined together to lift up serious concerns about staff and family experiences with special education. During public comment UTR President, Francisco Ortiz, shared a unanimous vote of no confidence for the WCCUSD SELPA leadership.
UTR represents special education teachers, psychologists, speech-language pathologists, and other service providers who serve students across the district everyday. These professionals have been sharing concerns, for some time, about:
- Breakdowns in communication and transparency
- Significant policy shifts that have long-lasting impact on our students ability to reach with academic and life goals
- Heightened staff stress triggering burnout and creating a threat to staff retention
- Increases in cost due to outsourced contracts and increases in legal liability due to non-compliance and failure to deliver required services
Sarah Talcott, a school psychologist at Lincoln Elementary, spoke in public comment about the inability of local IEP teams to secure adequate staffing supports for students to fully access instruction. She shared that “even after we fill out a 30-page plus application, compiling many sources of data over weeks, to justify the need for an aide, these applications for classroom support aides are now being stalled by business services, and that these applications have to go across 10 desks before being approved…This is incredibly frustrating and disheartening for our students, families, and teachers who desperately need the support.”
Sara Parks, an ESN (Extensive Support Needs) teacher from Tara Hills, spoke to the desperation of trying to access core supplies to safely meet her students’ basic needs. With the current budget allocations and processes to access supplies, Sara shared, “If I relied totally on the district, I would not have enough gloves to change my students’ [diapers]. The kids deserve better than this.”
UTR also shared information from a recent report, Spending More, Serving Less: The High Cost of Private Equity in Special Education authored by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, that explores the significant increase in spending on outside contractors in WCCUSD since 2019. The study authors name that “Since the 2019-2020 school year, WCCUSD spending on outside contractors and vendors more than doubled – from $59 million in the 2019-2020 school year to $117 million in 2024-2025. This is a spike from an already-high 16% of overall district spending to an astounding 23%.” Specifically in special education, the case study states that the district is “spending $14 million on just three private equity-owned special education contractors in 2024-2025 alone.” In a time when we are facing significant budget cuts, paying more for less is a very irresponsible use of limited resources.
While we know that there are staffing shortages across the state – particularly in special education – stressful, disorganized, and unsupportive working conditions directly undermine any efforts to achieve full, local staffing. Why would high quality staff want to join the effort here when they can work for any district? And why would our talented staff stay when they can easily move to another district with better working conditions?
The issues and concerns raised by UTR are echoed by families throughout the GO WCC network. We have experienced an increase in outreach from families seeking support, coaching, and resources to try to get their children the placement and services they deserve. Families’ are raising a wide range of concerns, including frustration with the integrity and clarity of the IEP process, uncertainty around changes in delivery (online versus in-person services), and the failure of the district to provide students with the IEP services they need to thrive and are legally entitled to receive.
GO’s resource, A Parent’s Guide to Special Education [español], was created by WCC families during the 2023-24 school year who were desperate for a comprehensive guide to support their special education advocacy. In the first year, there were just 268 downloads. During the 2024-25 year, the download count jumped to 1,707. For reference, there are 4,117 total students with disabilities in WCCUSD in 2024-25. This year, we are already at 715 downloads and the guide has only been out for two months. This is nearly double the download count at the same time last year, reflecting an ever-increasing need for support.
The jump in demand for advocacy resources and the increased outreach for support signal that there is a clear need for strong vision and leadership in the WCCUSD SELPA. Francisco Ortiz closed his public comment with the following. “Educators have done our part. We’ve identified the harm. We’ve offered solutions. We’ve brought forward evidence, testimony, and clear vision for rebuilding stability. Now, we call on the board to take action to realign leadership with the values of transparency, legality, and student-centered service.” We at GO call on the board to do the same.