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CAC tells CNUSD board students with disabilities face service gaps, recommends inclusion policy and more co-teaching
Summary
The districtCommunity Advisory Committee warned the Board that special education outcomes have declined, cited staff shortages and high litigation spending, and urged a package of recommendations including a pay-for-service preschool expansion, stronger co-teaching continuity, and an internal alternative dispute resolution program.
The Corona-Norco Unified School DistrictCommunity Advisory Committee (CAC) told the school board at its May meeting that students with disabilities are being shortchanged by gaps in services, weak interdepartmental follow-through and shortages of key staff.
"When we look at how we are moving forward with talking about how we have such deep hearts for our students with disabilities ... how a community treats its most vulnerable is always a measure of its humanity," CAC presenter Misty Hamlin said in her year-end report, urging the board to examine results alongside rhetoric.
Hamlin detailed a set of concerns and recommendations. She said district reporting shows declining special education performance since 2022 and that the district spent "over $2,700,000" on special-education litigation last year. She described recurring site-level problems that impede instruction: long lead times to obtain sensory tools, denials or quotas for simple supplies such as ink and Velcro used in accommodations, and a shortage of paraeducators and speech-language pathologists that can leave studentswithout mandated services.
The CAC recommended several steps: expand a pay-for-service preschool to increase inclusion opportunities, accelerate a co-teaching (push-in) initiative with site field visits and coaching so teachers can visualize models in practice, continue and enforce universal design for learning training with accountability, update the special education handbook to reflect current law, and adopt an internal alternative-dispute-resolution approach to resolve disputes more quickly and preserve relationships.
Hamlin also urged the board to reconsider the district's use of outside counsel for special education, arguing that some contracted firms are "highly motivated in billable hours" and that an internal model or different counsel might better serve a student-centered resolution approach.
Board members and staff asked for more detail on the CAC's cost comparisons and on how litigation expenses were tallied. "Not all districts track legal expenses in the same way," a district financial representative said, noting differences between billable outside counsel and in-house legal costs. Superintendent Sam Buenrostro responded that the concerns were a timely priority and supported a follow-up. "We need to develop this summer an action plan," he said, calling for capacity-building across the board, executive cabinet and the districtworkforce.
The board agreed to schedule a study session to dig deeper into CAC recommendations, cost drivers and implementation steps, and asked staff to provide comparative analyses and more precise accounting for special-education legal expenses.
The CAC presentation also featured parent-facing proposals such as a post-IEP satisfaction survey and continued parent training; presenters said those items have been discussed but not fully rolled out. Hamlin closed by urging the board to prioritize inclusion policy and implementation continuity so individual IEP meetings do not produce inconsistent outcomes across sites.
Whathappens next: the board committed to a study session this summer and requested staff follow-up materials, including a deeper financial breakdown and proposals for accountability and staffing to implement the CACrecommendations.
