For over thirteen years, the Youth & Education Law Project (YELP) has represented children with disabilities in East Palo Alto’s Ravenswood City School District in a federal class action lawsuit, Emma C. v. Delaine Eastin.  A recent article in the San Jose Mercury News summarizes some of the history and current status of YELP’s long-standing special education case against the Ravenswood District, and focuses on the return of one of the lawsuit’s principal defendants – formerly indicted Superintendent, Charlie Mae Knight.  Dr. Knight, who departed from East Palo Alto twelve years ago under a cloud of controversy surrounding her administration of Ravenswood’s special education services and her alleged malfeasance during the litigation, has returned to take up a seat on the Ravenswood City School Board – to find a strongly emerging and transformed special education program in place of the one she left behind.

Despite its early recalcitrance and the formidable challenges in reforming the schools in a high-poverty community, the District, prodded by the litigation and monitored by YELP, has made great strides in improving its services to children with disabilities. More.