Once-indicted Superintendent Charlie Mae Knight returns to Ravenswood as board member (quotes William Koski)

EAST PALO ALTO -- She spent $2.1 million for high-priced lawyers to fight a special-education settlement, saw her district held in contempt of court and led it to the brink of a state takeover.

Twelve years after she was eased out as superintendent of the Ravenswood City School District, Charlie Mae Knight is back, elected to a seat on the school board.

And the timing could not be more ironic. Just after Knight won one of three open seats on the school board, the clouds parted over Ravenswood's long-beleagured special education program. The district has so improved services to its most vulnerable students that the federal judge overseeing the settlement of a lawsuit indicated his decade and a half of involvement could come to an end.

                                                                                                                             ...

Although it's vastly improved, special education services continue to be a work in progress. So what has taken so long to fix it?

First, Ravenswood had a long ways to go, with a dysfunctional system, untrained employees and a high bar to reach. Initial years of progress were derailed in 2007-08, when the district didn't hire enough staff and key people such as therapists left. Even after digging out of that hole, Ravenswood continues to struggle with high turnover, which requires constant retraining. 

It also put in place an unusual and challenging model of fully integrating special-needs children -- those with autism, and various social-emotional and learning disabilities -- into regular classrooms. Most other school districts isolate special-needs children in special-education classrooms. 

The district has had to comply with 113 specific provisions of its consent decree.

"School reform takes a long time," said William Koski, a Stanford law professor who represented the plaintiffs and continues to monitor the district. "You can't just snap your fingers and change the system."

Read the full story the San Jose Mercury News.

Bill Koski is a Professor (Teaching) at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, and the the Eric & Nancy Wright Professor of Clinical Education and Professor of Law at the Stanford Law School.