The residents of Humboldt County are responsible for holding its elective and high-ranking officials accountable for their actions, or lack of action. We can accomplish this through the media, by attending board meetings, and/or at the polls. To assist the public in these responsibilities, the California State Constitution established civil grand juries, and empowered them to investigate and report on county, city, and special district governing bodies, identified in the law as entities.
California Penal Code 933 requires civil grand juries to report the results of their investigations, together with their recommendations, to the public and the entity under investigation. California Penal Code 933.05 requires all investigated entities to provide a written response to the Superior Court and the public on all civil grand jury reports. This response is required within either a 60 or 90-day period after the report was published.
So how are our community leaders doing with regard to providing the public with a response to 2017-2018 Civil Grand Jury reports? In the case of our superintendent, Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE), and our Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA), there has been no response provided to either the Superior Court or the public.
In June 2018, the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury released a report titled “Humboldt, We Have a Problem, But More Special Education Is Not the Answer.” This report resulted from a nine-month investigation including the “interview of over 20 professionals involved in the education of children, the interview of parents, foster parents, social workers, and advocates”. In addition, both HCOE and SELPA provided comprehensive county-wide special education data for analysis.
The civil grand jury report found too many children of Native and Hispanic heritage who may NOT have disabilities were being placed into special education programs. In addition, foster youth were found to be overrepresented in high numbers within special education programs. Most importantly the civil grand jury found there were intervention strategies to keep children in the general education programs but there was a mindset by educators and other professionals to bypass this part of the process.
There were seven recommendations which addressed these concerns and requested a response from HCOE, SELPA, the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), and Humboldt County Child Welfare Service (CWS). Both CASA and CWS provided a response to the civil grand jury report in accordance with the Penal Code 933.05 format. These two responses can be reviewed on the county website. Now, one year later, HCOE and SELPA have thus far failed to provide a response to the Superior Count and/or the residents of Humboldt County.
So, if not writing a response to the Civil Grand Jury report, what have HCOE and SELPA been up to during this past year?
The Humboldt County Chapter of the California Grand Jurors’ Association (HCC-CGJA) learned through a March press release from the Humboldt County Office of Education that eight district superintendents and leaders from across Humboldt County joined Dr. Chris Hartley, superintendent of Humboldt County Schools, in Sacramento to advocate for more special education funding. There they met with our elected officials, state Sen. Mike McGuire and Assemblymember Jim Wood, with the hopes of obtaining additional special education funds and supporting Assembly Bill 428. One of the underlying changes AB 428 proposes with state special education funding is to “adjust the enrollment growth calculation to reflect the actual growth in special education enrollment.” In other words, the more students districts identify as meeting special education criteria, the more dollars the SELPA will receive.
HCC-CGJA does not know the specific reasons for HCOE’s and SELPA’s lack of response to the civil grand jury report. However, it is hoped this article will result in both parties re-reading the report, keeping in mind the report specifically indicated the data used by the civil grand jury was directly provided by HCOE and the SELPA, and provide a response to both the Superior Court and the public.
The HCC-CGJA will ensure that any responses received are addressed and discussed in future monthly articles.
July 6, 2019
Eureka Times-Standard
By Wayne Ventuleth, who authored this monthly column on behalf of the Humboldt County Grand Jurors’ Association
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