ENCINITAS — The San Dieguito Union High School District is reviewing areas for improvement in its special education services and operations as community members call on leaders to be more transparent about its legal spending on cases against special education families.
At an Aug. 8 meeting, the district board of trustees reviewed the results of a recent study by the state’s Financial Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) regarding the district’s special education services.
The study, which was conducted in the spring of this year, specifically examined staffing, enrollment, spending and transportation in the special education department and identified areas for improvement. The district’s last FCMAT study on special education was in 2015, and it also received a 2022 FCMAT study focused on general district operations.
“I understand that these reports have been done before, and I also understand we’ve had quite a lot of transition in leadership, so it was important to update this report so that we can make this an actionable document for us,” said Superintendent Anne Staffieri.
One section of the report focused on litigation and settlement spending on special education cases, an area where the district is facing growing scrutiny from parents and the community.
Legal spending
Carolynne Beno, FCMAT Intervention Specialist, said SDUHSD is prevailing in most of its special-education litigation with the state Office of Administrative Hearing, which reviews cases where the district and a family disagree on what services their child needs.
The FCMAT study noted that special education tends to be highly litigious due to differing interpretations of what constitutes a “free appropriate public education.” However, Beno encouraged the district to pursue alternative dispute resolution whenever possible.
“Obviously, you’re working with your attorney to decide which cases to take to court for due process. What we found is your district wins most of the time, indicating that you are defending the right kind of decisions,” Beno said.
Some community members refuted this, noting how the district spent the last two years litigating unsuccessfully against one special education family, the Ogawas, before finally agreeing to enter a settlement in June.
San Dieguito refused the Ogawa family’s request to grant a non-public school placement for their teenage daughter at The Winston School in Del Mar, going against the advice of the rest of her Individualized Education Program (IEP) team and forcing the family to pay out-of-pocket for her tuition.
A state Office of Administrative Hearings judge and a federal appeals judge both ruled in favor of the family, ordering the district to fund the student’s placement at Winston. The district board appeared set to appeal the case again in April but then agreed to settle with the family two weeks later for an unknown sum.
San Dieguito rejected a records request from The Coast News for the exact amount spent on litigating the Ogawa case. However, the FCMAT noted that the district’s spending on special education litigation and settlements has grown steadily over the past three years — from around $846,000 in 2021-22 to $928,000 in 2022-23 to just over $1 million last year.
Kelly Ogawa, who fought the district over needed services for her daughter, said San Dieguito has failed to lower legal costs since the 2015 FCMAT study noted the same issue.
“Now, in 2024, FCMAT is again highlighting the same issues, and it’s alarming that despite repeated warnings and recommendations, these problems have persisted for nearly a decade. This ongoing inaction is unacceptable,” Ogawa said. “It also makes me think these reports are placed on the shelf and nothing is done.”
District parent and litigation attorney Evan Sorem also spoke up for the Ogawas, criticizing San Dieguito Special Education Director Tiffany Hazlewood for dragging out the process and refusing to work collaboratively with the family.
Sorem also claimed that the attorney law firm Orbach, Huff and Henderson, which litigates special education cases for the district, took the district for a ride by advising the board to continue fighting the Ogawa family rather than meeting their demands early on in order to continue being paid.
“Any lawyer with any basic understanding of special education law asked to review the Ogawa case back in January of 2022 when it was filed would have told Hazlewood and the district that litigating the Ogawa case was unwise,” Sorem said.
In an email sent this week to special education parents, Hazlewood announced she is leaving the district to become the executive director at the North Coastal Consortium of Special Education, which oversees special education operations in 14 districts throughout San Diego County.
Trustee Michael Allman said he would be in favor of investigating alternative forms of dispute resolution, such as an independent ombudsman, rather than entering litigation.
Allman and Trustee Katrina Young also encouraged district staff to gather more feedback from special education families to learn more about needed areas of improvement, as the FCMAT study only included input from staff and administrators.
“How do we measure, in a systematic way from parents, how well they think we’re doing? Because I think if we had a systematic process where at the end of something, if we surveyed them or had a discussion, we can measure how well we are doing and identify some areas we can do better,” Allman said.
Recommendations
FCMAT made several recommendations to improve special education operations, many of which the district has already begun to implement, according to Staffieri.
The study recommended hiring another behaviorist to help meet behavioral support needs in the district — SDUHSD only has one — and scheduling more co-teaching time between special education and general education teachers.
FCMAT also noted that San Dieguito has more special education administrators than other similarly-sized districts, which echoes findings in the 2022 FCMAT study about the high number of overall education services administrators.
Despite the high number of administrators, FCMAT noted that many special education staff said they need more program supervisor support at individual school sites. The study recommended making sure that supervisors can maximize their time at school sites and deal with other responsibilities at other times.
When it comes to transportation, FCMAT Consultant Tim Purvis said the district transported 61 students on two general education routes and 120 students on 15 special education bus routes this past school year.
The study recommended finding a way to add additional bus runs in the morning and afternoon, allowing more students to ride fewer buses.
Staffieri commended the district’s special education staff for their work and said the district is committed to making improvements in the future.
“I think there’s a lot to commend our staff on in this report … but there is always room to improve, and we have a lot of opportunities to do so,” Staffieri said.
