WA education ombuds logs record number of calls, most about special ed needs
The state’s Office of the Education Ombuds last year received the highest number of calls since its founding, according to a recently released OEO annual report.
The number of calls for the 2024-25 school year — 1,643 total concerns — represented a more than 17% case growth over the previous fiscal year. Compared with two years prior, it marked a 36% spike.
Housed within the Office of the Governor, the statewide agency established in 2006 helps to resolve issues between Washington families and schools and close achievement gaps. It maintains independence from the public-school system. Ombuds work to mend communication breakdowns between parents and educators, and they push for fair processes for the state’s students.
Agency staffers assist parents in navigating problems, said Erin Okuno, OEO’s acting director. Sometimes that can look like pointing a caller in the right direction about who to talk to in the district.
Okuno said OEO has seen a steady increase in its case count in recent years — and that bump has been a lot for a small, 10-staff agency to handle.
As for what accounts for this rise? There are a couple suspected culprits.
During the thick of the pandemic, call volume sharply dropped because kids were at home, Okuno said, and people had bigger things going on in their lives. Since 2020’s low of 597 cases, the number has steadily ticked up.
Another factor, per Okuno: a 2021 bill that required public schools to let families know about OEO through their website or in annually shared materials, like newsletters and welcome packets. Awareness is spreading, including via word of mouth.
“I don’t think there’s necessarily a: ‘Hey, there’s more problems,’” she said. “I think it’s the problems are just now finding us.”
The main category for callers’ questions continues to be special education, including families with requests related to their child’s Individualized Education Plan, the report says. Such parents and caregivers often expressed feelings of anxiety, stress and uncertainty about their kid’s disability being adequately supported by the school.
Calls related to special education composed 28% of cases, the 2024-25 report says. Contacts falling under the harassment and bullying category made up 9%, while calls about attendance, as well as enrollment and transferring schools, both made up 8%.
Okuno has concerns about how federal changes around Medicaid will affect the state’s students with disabilities. If a child has autism, for instance, will losing such medical support impair their ability to function in school?
The report also called federal-level changes about student protections and rights “concerning,” underscoring a need to focus on Black and Brown students, immigrants, students with disabilities and transgender and nonbinary students.
Engagement is also shifting for immigrant families, the report says. And many community groups and schools stopped hosting in-person events because they fear attracting immigration enforcement.
Like every other state agency, Okuno said, OEO had to make budget adjustments per the request of Gov. Bob Ferguson as Washington dealt with a steep budget shortfall. The office decided to not start a program that would have centered on special education, Okuno said. That saved about $1 million for the biennium.
“It was sad, especially because special ed is one of our highest call volumes,” Okuno said.
The state’s student population is roughly 1 million kids, Okuno noted. Meanwhile the case load is split among six ombuds. In the future she hopes the office can get more staffing, especially if the roughly 20%-annual-uptick trend continues.
State Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, a Seattle Democrat, was the prime sponsor of the 2006 legislation that created the education ombuds office.
She said the report showed consistency in terms of student characteristics and the types of struggles faced. At the same time, in her reading, it also seemed to show increasing intensity.
Santos noted that the office was meant to be separate from the state’s public-education agency; it was modeled similar to Washington’s independent Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. That’s why OEO is housed in the governor’s office and not the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
“This is about changing the system, making the system accountable,” she said.
Trained as a social-justice and civil-rights activist, Santos wanted to help address disparities in resources and opportunities in the school system. In the latest OEO report, more than half of the clients were BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) students.
“I’d always wanted to figure out a way whereby the voices of those students and families who were often dismissed by educational institutions, like school boards, could be heard and given a fair shot,” Santos said. “Rather than saying, ‘You have to put up with hand-me-down books. If you have a concern or complaint, it’s your problem.’”
Santos is very pleased with and proud of the services that OEO has been able to provide over the years, particularly on limited funding.
Looking ahead, Okuno encourages families in need of help to contact OEO sooner than later. One of OEO’s priority groups is students who are out of school.
“We want students in school,” Okuno said. “So if we can also keep kids in school, that’s a really great thing as well.”
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