"One California student in special ed can be three times as expensive as general ed"
- The end of childhood
- 15 hours ago
- 5 min read
April 23, 2025, CBS13 News : Woodland [CA] Joint Unified is "failing" special education students, parent and advocate allege
WOODLAND — In part one of a three-part investigative series, CBS13 for months has looked into allegations that the Woodland Joint Unified School District (WJUSD) is violating the federal education rights of some of its most vulnerable students: those in special education.
Staffing and funding challenges, especially within special education departments, exist at schools nationwide and are not unique to WJUSD.
However, a parent, a regional special education advocate and former teachers share stories of their experience at WJUSD schools that they hope will shine a spotlight not only on this district but problems within special education across the country.
Sunday night, one day before CBS13 alerted the district that this series would begin to air, the district's superintendent, Elodia Ortega-Lampkin, sent out an email blast to all parents within WJUSD.
The email alerted parents that a CBS13 story would be airing and even outlined steps the district is taking to improve their special education department -- a response that included information not provided to CBS13 when we asked multiple times over the course of four months for the district to respond to these allegations.
The district's response provided to CBS13 and the subsequent email sent to parents will be included in full at the end of this story.
In part, Ortega-Lampkin told parents in her email that, "School districts across California are grappling with similar struggles as they work to meet growing demands with limited resources."
A parent's plea
At Zamora Elementary School in Woodland, one mother feels that her fight for her child echoes the struggles of other parents within WJUSD.
"They talk to us parents like we don't know what's best for our child," Surrina Oliver said.
Oliver's daughter, Natalie, is in kindergarten at Zamora Elementary. Oliver said Natalie was diagnosed with autism when she was two years old and was placed in special needs day classes within the district for preschool.
But this school year, upon Natalie's transition to kindergarten, is when Oliver says the problems started.
"Natalie is behind educationally. The tests show it, and they didn't want to help support her," Oliver said. "They were going to put her into general education with no support at all.". . .
Oliver alleges the district excluded verbally agreed-upon supports from Natalie's IEP document and even lied about her daughter's progress to support a move out of special education.
"They weren't taking it serious. It seemed like they were just trying to throw all the kids in mainstream. That's where the majority of her preschool class ended up. They pushed them into mainstream, general ed with very little support," Oliver claimed.
Educating one California student in special education can be three times as expensive as general education, based on state spending data.
For the 2023-24 school year, state data shows WJUSD had 1,770 students enrolled in special education, the highest of any district in Yolo County. The next closest was Davis Joint Unified with 1,288 students. . . .
Surrina Oliver is one of dozens of WJUSD parents who reached out to the Sacramento Autistic Spectrum and Special Needs Alliance (SASSNA) for help.
"This is why I reached out to [SASSNA], I've been told by the district, 'we don't offer that,' and 'we don't have that,' or 'we can't help you there or support your daughter.' They do have it, but they were trying to make me believe they didn't," Oliver said.
Dave Gaines, CEO of SASSNA, first reached out to CBS13 last fall with a long list of allegations against the district.
"This is a crisis on the federal level, but most people don't even know it exists," Gaines said.
The nonprofit advocates for students with special needs and their families regionwide, providing help navigating social services and even attending students' IEP meetings to act as an advocate on behalf of the child and their parents when negotiating needed supports in the classroom.
Gaines said that he learned through his own advocacy work that within WJUSD, Natalie's story is one example of many.
"We started getting a stream of requests for help from parents in Woodland Joint Unified. We had never seen anything like it before from this district," Gaines said.
Gaines said that he is currently working with around 40 clients, all current or former parents and teachers and all bringing forward their own allegations against the district.
"It's probably the most severe situation I've seen in my 15 years of doing this kind of work," Gaines said.
So what are the allegations?
Broadly, considering confidential information from his clients cannot be shared without their permission, Gaines said that recurring allegations based on his interviews with parents include claims that:
classrooms are being taught long-term by a substitute or non-qualified teacher.
some students are not getting the supports outlined in their IEPs, pointing to Natalie Oliver as one example.
there is a pattern of trying to push some students out of special education.
classrooms have had no teacher at all.
Concerning the allegation of students having no teacher at all, Gaines alleges, "I have information, very credible information, that that happened for a period up to seven months. For a class with 12 to 14 significantly disabled students, bigger students, students with behavioral concerns, students that run away, there are safety concerns there."
Gaines said that happened at a district adult education class for those with special needs.
This school year, SASSNA sent a letter to the district offering to collaborate to address alleged "substantial legal deficiencies" and a "cover-up of systemic problems."
He said the district has provided no real response to SASSNA. It is why he contacted CBS13.
Gaines also emailed the school board and district that he believes they have, on multiple occasions, "criminally" violated students' federal education rights.
It's why he filed a complaint with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) last year.
The DOJ, in response, directed its Office of Civil Rights to look into his concerns. Gaines said that he is currently cooperating with federal Department of Education staff and that their inquiry is ongoing.
"In a lot of cases, Woodland and other school districts, they know they are in violation of the law. The system doesn't allow them to not be in violation of the law. It says you have to do all this by law, but we are not going to give you enough resources to do it," Gaines said.
Gaines said the problem stems from a funding and staffing deficit, decades in the making. He hopes that calling attention to it to can make a difference. . . .
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