WCCUSD must hire qualified teachers, court rules, setting statewide precedent

In a landmark decision, a California appeals court ruled that the West Contra Costa Unified School District violated state law by not doing enough to hire qualified teachers, sending a message to schools statewide that blaming vacancies on a teacher shortage is not a valid excuse.

Cleare et. al v. WCCUSD is the first lawsuit filed to enforce the Williams Act, which guarantees a qualified teacher in every classroom, among other school standards. On Thursday, just two weeks after hearing oral arguments, the court found that the district didn’t exhaust all options before claiming compliance was “impossible.”

“As we see it, the issue before us is simple and straightforward,” the court wrote in its judgment. “The importance of public education is beyond question — or need of justification. Central to its function is the belief that knowledge should be imparted by qualified instructors. As quoted, California law mandates the District’s duty to fill every classroom with a permanent and qualified teacher for the school year.”

The appellate court’s ruling reverses a 2024 Contra Costa Superior Court decision, where the judge dismissed the case and argued that the district had no options other than hiring substitutes because of a teacher shortage that is out of its control. However, the appellate court rejected that reasoning, noting that the district could’ve done more to follow the law.

Teachers are required to have a credential, either in a single subject, multiple subjects or special education, to teach in public schools. If the district can’t find a fully credentialed teacher for a position, then it can seek an emergency credential or waiver.

“For 20 years, Williams has meant that certain things are non-negotiable, including providing a permanent qualified teacher in every classroom,” said John Affeldt, Managing Attorney at Public Advocates, who argued the appeal. “The Court made clear today (Thursday) that districts cannot simply claim impossibility and turn their back on students. They must exhaust every option available to them.”

Affeldt, who was one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys in the original Williams case, said the district should’ve reassigned fully credentialed teachers from non-teaching positions and that it didn’t pursue various emergency permit options and refused to seek state-approved waivers.

“Given its woeful efforts, thankfully, the district’s request for a permission slip to break the law has been denied,” Affeldt said.

The district was not immediately available for comment but argued in court that it had gone “above and beyond” to hire qualified staff but there just aren’t enough out there. Bay Area teachers are also more likely to prefer landing jobs in the more affluent parts of the Bay Area, like Lafayette or San Ramon, because they tend to pay more.

In Thursday’s ruling, the judges noted that “the District acknowledged that it had, and has, “utilized long-term and day-to-day substitutes,” and thus “is out of compliance” with state law.

Nevertheless, the district stated, these practices would not be discontinued because “they require addressing statewide, systemic problems over which the District has little control.”

California is without a doubt experiencing a teacher shortage. A 2025 report by the Learning Policy Institute found that in 2022, the number of new teachers completing a California-based traditional teacher preparation program was cut in half, compared to its peak number in 2004. As a result, more emergency credentials and permits have been issued, tripling between 2013 and 2023.

The students hit the hardest by the teacher shortage attend schools with the highest need, the report found. Schools that serve the greatest number of low-income, English language learners or foster care students were nearly three times more likely to fill teaching positions with interns and teachers on emergency-style permits or waivers, than schools with lower needs.

Plaintiffs also raised concerns over facilities and equity

The case was first filed in 2024. In addition to staffing concerns, the initial lawsuit also alleged that the district failed to provide safe facilities, particularly at Stege Elementary, Helms Middle, and Kennedy High. Educators and parents, represented by Public Advocates and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, argued that dangerous conditions, such as mold and asbestos also violated the Williams v. California 2004 settlement.

However, shortly after the lawsuit was filed, WCCUSD shut down Stege Elementary to start a full rebuild of the 80-plus year old school site in Richmond. Renovations are also being done at Kennedy High School, so the plaintiffs dropped those issues from the suit.

Plaintiffs argued that these violations disproportionately impacted Black, Latino and socio-economically disadvantaged students who make up the majority of the population of the campuses with crumbling infrastructure and a revolving door of substitute teachers.

Students and parents have told Richmondside that it was common for a student to be in a classroom all year without a fulltime teacher. When Karissa Provenza, an attorney with Public Advocates, visited Kennedy High School, she said students were shocked to learn that the law is supposed to ensure that each class has a full-time credentialed teacher.

“For over two years, I watched the district consistently fail its most marginalized students with little regard and then kick the can down the road and ask to be excused for it,” said Karissa Provenza, attorney at Public Advocates, in a statement.

Plaintiffs said that the district had enough credentialed teachers, but placed them in non-classroom settings and “refused to pursue other available certification options, including as a last resort state waivers.”

Provenza previously told Richmondside that the ruling will have reverberations statewide and sets a precedent for all districts. No other district had argued that a teacher shortage excuses staffing classes properly, and now no other district can.

“A ruling in WCCUSD’s favor would have opened the door for districts across the state to abandon California’s more than 20-year Williams guarantee,” Sumeet Bal, director of communications for Public Advocates, wrote in a press release. “Instead, today’s ruling makes clear: The promise of a single, year-long qualified teacher in every classroom means something.”

It is unclear how WCCUSD will comply with the court order. The district has struggled to fill its vacant positions for years. This academic year, WCCUSD started with 70 vacancies (though not all in teaching positions) and hit its peak with about 140 substitute teachers, according to United Teachers of Richmond President Francisco Ortiz. About 18 teachers also face layoffs amid drastic budget cuts this year.

“It’s validating that after so many years of us sounding the alarm and really trying to bring attention for the district to actually make this a priority, that the court is in agreement,” Ortiz told Richmondside. “I think it’s a good victory for our students and for the rest of California.”

One of the union’s main reasons behind its four-day strike in December that demanded raises, was that higher pay could bring in and keep qualified teachers to the district — and it desperately needed more teachers.

Ortiz said in addition to raises, which the union secured, there are a number of ways the district can help retain and recruit teachers, including the creation of a pathway for classified staff (custodians, food service workers, or paraprofessionals) to earn their credential to become classroom teachers. He also said the district and the union need to work together to demand more funding from the state.

The union is currently lobbying at the state level that funding withheld through Prop. 98 gets released back, Ortiz said, “because it’s unconscionable that Governor Newsom is withholding close to $6 billion” from school districts.

“We want to ensure that teaching is a sustainable profession, and we’re the fourth largest economy in the world, and our state can fully fund education if it chooses to,” Ortiz said. “That’s a larger fight ahead, but that’s something that we can do on a local level.”

___ This story was originally published by Richmondside and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.