Welcome to District Deeds Sunday Reads!

This week we continue with our 2023 HAT Trick Resolution of holding the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) to FULL Honesty, Accountability, Transparency with the District Deeds HAT TRICK Handbook Chapter 2: “CDE Statute Of Limitations – #1 Reason for UCP Failure”.

To get the full background and chapters of our Uniform Complaint (UC) Handbook initiative, please review the previous entries for this handbook:

District Deeds HAT TRICK Handbooks

– UC Preface and Introduction

– UC Chapter 1 – Documentation, Documentation, Documentation!

Along the way we will be providing “DD HINT“‘s and “DD Tip“‘s to highlight key information that Stakeholders should know when filing UC’s.

We also urge our readers to read our Disclaimer for ALL posts on this blog:

District Deeds Blog Disclaimer

CHAPTER 2 QUOTE:

“Law enforcement ignore many crimes until the statute of limitations prevents the illegal activities from being investigated.” — Steven Magee

Digging into the SDUSD and California Department of Education communication regarding Statute of Limitations for UC’s has been confusing and frustrating.

In other words EXACTLY the way ANY CDE/SDUSD Stakeholder feels when actually FILING a UC against the SDUSD.

But this exercise has also been ENLIGHTENING!

It is truly amazing how far multi-billion dollar public serving organizations like the CDE/SDUSD will go to confuse and frustrate Stakeholders seeking justice for their children.

Case in point:  Chapter 2 – Statute of Limitations – #1 reason for UCP Failure!

Let’s first get the basic definitions and nuances of SOL’s”

The “Civil” SOL is underlined in yellow.

The “Criminal” SOL is underlined in red.

Here is a definition of Statute of Limitations from Wikipedia:

The UCP documents distributed by the CDE and SDUSD refer to Civil Law situations.  There are 22 UCP “educational programs and services” in the California Department of Education UCP Pamphlet we posted last week in Sunday Reads.

For tracking purposes we have converted the bulleted list to a numerical list of “educational programs and services” covered by the UCP.

In reviewing this list from the official CDE UCP Pamphlet it is obvious that they listed the “Services Covered by the UCP” in alphabetical order with no regard to educational category or Statute of Limitation requirements.

In fact a further search of this cornerstone CDE UCP pamphlet for public education stakeholders also revealed that the words “Statute of Limitations” (SOL) were NOWHERE to be found.

The SDUSD “Uniform Complaints” page is just as bad, or worse!  A search of that page only mentions “Statute of Limitations” TWICE:

The first, underlined in yellow, references ONLY Pupil Fees in the 1 year SOL category.  There are actually TWENTY MORE “Services Covered by the UCP” listed, but not designated as a 1 year SOL Service.

The second, also underlined in yellow, references the only one of the 22 SOL violations (“discrimination, harrassment, etc) with a six month SOL, but inaccurately leaves out  “against any protected group as identified under sections 200 and 220 and Section 11135 of the Government Code“.

Here is a segment from the CDE UCP page that describes the “protected groups: 

Here is the actual law governing these complaints: 4630. Filing a Local Complaint; Procedures, Time Lines.

In reality, there is only one category, #10, that has a 6 month SOL.

As far as we know, this is the only list of actual SOL for ALL of the 22 listed “educational programs and services”. areas. Neither the CDE Pamphlet or SDUSD UCP web page fully and accurately provide this information.

The closest we get to full UCP disclosure is from a post published on the Lozano/Smith LLP website titled “New Regulations Regarding Uniform Complaint Procedures Took Effect July 1, 2020“.  A number of key items are listed on this post:

• Under the new Regulations, complaints alleging discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or bullying cannot be filed by third parties.
• Complaints alleging harassment, discrimination, intimidation, or bullying by or against a student on the basis of the complainant’s protected status must be filed within six months of the date the complainant knew or should have known of the alleged conduct. The LEA can extend this deadline for 90 calendar days if there is good cause to do so.
• UCP complaints containing all other types of allegations must be filed within one year of the date the complainant knew or should have known of the alleged conduct.
• Under the new Regulations, complaints regarding special education programs can no longer be brought against LEAs as UCP complaints. Rather, complaints regarding special education programs must be brought through the existing state compliance complaint or due process procedures established by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its implementing regulations.

For your reference, here is the actual law governing these complaints: 4630. Filing a Local Complaint; Procedures, Time Lines.

DD Tip

From our research, the #1 issue that DEFEATS most UC’s is a violation of the Statute of Limitations.  

That is probably why both the SDUSD and CDE do everything in their power to eliminate the FULL SOL information from their primary web pages and literature distributed to taxpayers/stakeholders.  The easiest complaint/lawsuit to fight is one that is never allowed to start.

The best thing that you can do to START your UC is to keep a rolling calendar of your key complaints (with ALL DOCUMENTATION!) and don’t be afraid of filing multiple UC’s when you get close to the SOL dates.  That practice with UC’s, even ones that are rejected, will make you stronger and wiser in the end.

Practice Makes Perfect!!!

In closing, how ironic that a search of CDE/SDUSD UCP regulations revealed that the words “Statute of Limitations” (SOL) was close to NOWHERE to be found, unfairly leaving many well meaning, LEA complaintants and their kids REALLY “SOL“.

Just don’t let that “SOL” person be you!!!

REMEMBER:

• Educate yourself about the laws and guidelines for being a strong SDUSD Stakeholder Advocate.
• Make yourself fully aware of SDUSD, CDE and Federal Statute of Limitations
• Recognize SDUSD UC Violations when you either see or experience them yourself.
• Help your fellow SDUSD Stakeholders fully embrace their SDUSD Stakeholder Rights and

Most of all…

• Enforce FULL SDUSD Honesty, Accountability, Transparency in order to protect, defend and enhance the lives of ALL our children!!!

The SDUSD HAT Trick!!!

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Thank you for reading Chapter 2! Be sure to pass this on to ALL your SDUSD Stakeholder friends and colleagues for this and future chapters.  Remember…

Together we can Make This Better!!!

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