Civil Rights Law Firm Asks Court to Reverse Decision Allowing Unlicensed Individuals to Serve as Teachers in WCCUSD

State Commission and local teachers’ union weigh in to support Plaintiffs’ demand

San Francisco — Public Advocates, a civil rights law firm, and pro bono counsel Munger, Tolles & Olson, filed a motion for a new trial over the holiday break, requesting the Contra Costa Superior Court reverse its recent ruling allowing individuals without state-mandated training and authorization to serve as teachers in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. In October, the court declined to order WCCUSD to halt its practice of filling certificated teaching positions with uncertified individuals. State certification requirements ensure that public school teachers possess at least the minimum education and training needed to serve as a teacher. For over one year, WCCUSD has acknowledged it is staffing classrooms in its most disadvantaged schools with untrained and unqualified individuals who are not fit to serve as the teacher of record for the entire year.

In January 2024, Public Advocates filed complaints on behalf of teachers and parents in three schools with the highest number of low-income, and Black and Latino students in the district, challenging the use of uncertified substitutes. Despite being required by law to remedy the teacher issues, the district refused to act. In July, Public Advocates and pro bono counsel filed suit seeking a court order to compel WCCUSD to assign only legally authorized teachers to teaching positions and to otherwise comply with district duties to redress identified deficiencies in basic educational necessities like certified teachers and safe facilities.

“Teachers are critical to a student’s life, and having the stability of a permanent and qualified teacher is directly related to student success. In no other occupation would we stand for an unlicensed individual to fill in as a licensed provider. As lawyers, we can’t practice law without the license to do so. Our students are entitled to the same level of care and oversight to ensure they have the right individuals teaching them,” said Karissa Provenza, Staff Attorney for Public Advocates.

During the last year, the district continued to assert its minimal, status quo efforts to address its teacher shortage were its only options while repeatedly demonstrating more was and is possible. Claiming it could do nothing more in response to the January 2024 complaints, the district later addressed several of the teacher vacancies shortly after the lawsuit was filed in July. And despite telling the court in October that it was restricted—by its union contract—from reassigning fully prepared teachers working elsewhere to fill vacancies in lieu of illegally placed substitutes, the district recently announced, in December, that it will be doing precisely that with 40 fully-certified teachers to fill many – but not all – vacancies beginning this semester as students re-enter schools after the winter break.

Weighing in on the motion for a new trial in support of plaintiffs are both Dr. Mary Vixie Sandy, the Executive Director of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and Mark Mitchell, the Executive Director for the United Teachers of Richmond (UTR). Mr. Mitchell confirmed that the district mis-represented the union contract to the court in October; the contract does not bar the district from reassigning fully-certified teachers from other non-teaching assignments, including from among the hundreds of such teachers working in the district central office.

Dr. Sandy’s declaration states: “It would create chaos for the quality of our public-school teacher workforce if districts were to unilaterally decide when they could relieve themselves of the general requirement to assign only certified individuals to certificated positions long-term…” Districts “have no authority to unilaterally ignore [state] certification requirements.” Instead, Dr. Sandy affirms districts must seek other options to staff classrooms with at least minimally trained and legally authorized teachers or, and only as a last resort, seek Commission-approved waivers of certification requirements in true hardship cases.

“It’s unprecedented for a district to be allowed to staff classrooms with uncertified individuals. The legislature established with the Williams v. California settlement legislation 20 years ago that certain minimum necessities are so inviolate that districts must remedy their denial immediately. No excuses and no exceptions. One of those fundamental necessities is the provision of a single qualified teacher in a classroom for the whole year. To allow unqualified and unauthorized personnel to continue in place runs counter to the basic requirements of Williams and the basic notion of an education,” said John Affeldt, Managing Attorney at Public Advocates who was one of the plaintiff’s lawyers that settled the Williams case with the state in 2004. “The district has repeatedly demonstrated that it has options at its disposal to fill all its classrooms with at least minimally qualified teachers but that it is refusing to do the hard work to get there. It’s clear that only an order compelling the district to staff certificated teaching positions with certified teachers will halt WCCUSD’s illegal assignment practices and protect student’s educational rights.”

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Public Advocates Inc. is a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and racial discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories advancing education, housing, transportation equity and climate justice.