Quick Take
Pajaro Valley Unified School District reached a settlement with the family of a first grade special education student after acknowledging it failed to meet legal requirements outlined in the child’s education plan. The agreement includes compensatory services such as summer camp, behavioral support and speech therapy.
A first grade special-needs student from Pajaro Valley Unified School District will receive compensatory education benefits in a settlement with the district, after officials agreed PVUSD violated state and federal laws by failing to meet requirements of the child’s special education plan.
Rio Del Mar Elementary School first grader Cora Realmuto had five different teachers in the span of about 12 months, including one substitute teacher for three months who didn’t have special education credentials. Because of those violations, the district agreed to pay for 10 weeks of summer camp over the next two summers, as well as one-on-one time with a behavior technician and a speech therapist.
The student’s parents, Mads and Nick Realmuto, shared their concerns in a December story from Lookout about the impacts of the shifting and uncredentialed teachers.
Mads said having the district affirm in meetings over the past several months that the family was right about the violations was very “frustrating,” but he said he also feels hopeful that PVUSD will continue to improve its special services for all students.
“It just feels like a waste of resources to have to go through something like this,” he said. “If we got it right up front, it would be better for our kids.”
Realmuto said the district agreed that because Cora had five different teachers in the span of about 12 months, including the substitute teacher who didn’t have special ed credentials for more than 20 days, it violated both a California law related to the substitute, as well as a federal law, Title II, which requires that schools provide a free appropriate public education, known as FAPE. He said district officials acknowledged that having several teachers in that time span caused an unstable environment and was not appropriate for the student’s education.
District spokesperson Alejandro Chavez declined to answer questions about this story: “We are unable to comment on matters involving individual students. Student records are protected [by law] and cannot be disclosed,” he said.
During Cora’s kindergarten year, last year at Bradley Elementary, she first had a teacher from Aug. 12 to Sept. 30, 2024, who was teaching while simultaneously earning her credentials. She had to stop teaching Cora’s class because she had only temporary approval.
Cora’s class then had a substitute teacher without special education credentials for nearly three months, far longer than the two weeks state law allows. Next, she had a substitute teacher for one week. The remainder of the year she had a teacher with special education credentials.
For the start of this current academic year, Cora had a teacher who, while credentialed for special education, had experience primarily in one-on-one situations with students, not in a classroom setting, according to Mads Realmuto. Under those circumstances, he said, Cora developed sleep issues, had potty accidents and didn’t want to go to school.
Mads asked to have her transferred, and by Sept. 29, she was in an autism classroom at Rio Del Mar Elementary, where she’s thriving.
As Mads did research to try to understand what was best for his daughter, he realized that the district was not meeting the requirements laid out in his daughter’s special education plan. He requested meetings with district officials, and over the past six months or so talked through the issues and how to remedy them.
Mads said he didn’t want to sue and “bankrupt” the district, but said he knew PVUSD failed to provide his daughter with the appropriate services and that she was owed compensatory education.
He said it was difficult to estimate what precisely Cora missed out on: “I don’t know that there’s any easy way to quantify that.”
They settled on providing her 10 total weeks of summer camp over the next two summers. She’ll split the time at Four Points Youth Camp and Farm Discovery Summer Camp at Live Earth in Watsonville. She’ll get up to 45 hours a week with a behavior technician and 100 minutes a week of speech therapy. Mads estimates that the two summers, fully paid for by the district, could amount to about $30,000.
He said he doesn’t think he’s asked for too much or too little, but that it seems to be just right for what Cora needs.
“I think what was surprising to me was how quickly they said yes to what I wanted,” he said. “Which also tells me that I think they feel like they’re getting a good deal.”
Mads said he’s going to continue advocating for families who don’t have the resources or knowledge to demand that their childrens’ special education plans are fulfilled.
He’s on the district’s special education community advisory committee, which he said is a collaborative effort between parents and the district to help shape special education and to hold the district accountable.
“We’ve got a lot more parents participating in those meetings,” he said. “We’re getting more feedback on where things are not working, and are able to advocate in a broader sense, so that no one’s … being left out.”
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