A Sonoma County parent is asking a judge to unwind key recent special education moves by Santa Rosa City Schools, arguing the district pushed them through behind closed doors. The petition says those actions shut parents out of decision-making for students with disabilities and seeks court orders, not cash, in the form of declaratory and injunctive relief.
The lawsuit, Velasquez v. Santa Rosa City Schools, No. 26CV03168, was filed last Wednesday in Sonoma County Superior Court and assigned to Judge Patrick Broderick, according to Adina’s Substack. The filing names petitioner Jennifer Velasquez, a parent and district-selected member of the SELPA planning committee, who says she brought the case on behalf of the wider community of parents of students with disabilities.
The court petition lays out a list of alleged Brown Act violations. It says Administrative Regulation AR 1220 was revised on April 2 to remove the SELPA Community Advisory Committee from Brown Act coverage; that the board adopted Section B of the SELPA local plan on April 8 without completing the required Section A or posting the required 15-day hearing notice; and that recordings and official minutes were mishandled. The petition also accuses district staff of suppressing the March 12 CAC meeting recording, filing false minutes for Feb. 26 and March 12, and sending a Spanish-language notice with the wrong city and address that pointed families to Modesto instead of Santa Rosa, allegations detailed in the court petition. As the petition puts it, “They have been ignored, excluded, and managed rather than heard.”…