and their boards are tasked with duties such as providing technical assistance, professional development and financial oversight to school districts and helping to maintain compliance with state and federal regulations. They also manage instructional programming for vulnerable student groups, including juvenile court and alternative schools.

“I guess for me, the key is around ensuring all students have a fighting chance and have equity in their education. The local districts are on the front lines of the effort to educate our children, and the county office is basically a service organization behind them,” said Mike Teasdale, a Ventura COE trustee and CSBA Director-at-Large, County.

“County offices of education are essential pillars of California’s education system,” said San Bernardino County Superintendent Ted Alejandre. “Our work may not always be visible to the public, but our impact is profound — strengthening school districts, supporting educators and expanding opportunities for students across the state.”

Gwen Dowdy-Rodgers, San Bernardino County Board of Education’s president who previously served two-terms as a trustee for San Bernardino City Unified School District, described the different responsibilities of district and county board of education members.

“County board members oversee regional programs, including alternative education, special education and juvenile court schools. Our responsibilities also include budget approval, handling appeals for student expulsions and interdistrict transfers, managing real estate transactions, and overseeing charter school petitions and approvals,” Dowdy-Rodgers said. “In my experience, the main difference is one of scope. District boards focus on local governance, addressing community-specific needs such as curriculum, staffing, health and safety, nutrition and hiring the district superintendent. In contrast, county trustees must consider the diverse challenges across multiple districts and charter schools to establish initiatives that benefit the entire region by working in tandem with the county superintendent.”

The structure of districts and COEs is also a bit different. Whereas superintendents are employees of a district, in COEs, they are typically elected officials with their own legal authority.

“We are working with an elected official who is both the superintendent and employer, so all the employees of the office report to the superintendent,” explained Mike Walsh, Butte COE trustee and CSBA Director of County Board Member Services. “We have what we call ‘shared governance’ in areas such as overseeing the budget and in approving curriculum for county schools. In that sense, the county board has got this unique role of working with the superintendent and not having the superintendent work for us. So there really must an emphasis placed on collaboration.”

Walsh detailed how the relationship between COEs and districts has and continues to evolve from a place of managing compliance to offering support and partnership, “because county offices have so many other resources that can be used to support school districts in better meeting their needs.” He noted that a lack of district resources and a growing list of challenges is driving this change.

“The collaboration is what is becoming more and more critical, and people are finding ways to make it happen,” he added.

Ventura COE’s Teasdale noted that things can get tricky as COE staff act as both an ally and service provider and as an enforcer of legal requirements.

“I think everyone has to realize that even when staff is acting in the role of the state in ensuring conformance to rules, what’s in their heart is what’s best for the children,” he said.

Finances, for example, can be a touchy subject for anyone. If a district is experiencing financial turmoil and board members can’t agree on a path forward and pass a budget by the annual deadline of July 1, COEs are required to take over and attempt to rectify it. Situations like this can complicate rapport.

In Butte County, Walsh said the COE is involved with district finances year-round to avoid any surprises.

“The focus is becoming more about the planning and the proactive work in the approaches and less about the reaction to what has happened,” he said. “We have data that tells us when money flow will become a challenge … Our county office talks with districts a lot about how to stabilize funding so it’s more predictable so that we have fewer times where there are challenges.”

The charter authorization process is another area that can prove difficult, from vetting petitions to ongoing oversight and renewals. In 2022, Butte COE and partners published a “Charter School Authorizing Administrative Procedures” guide to establish clear expectations.

Walsh said that he’s observed charter-related chatter become more constructive.

“The conversation is moving from ‘charters good’ and ‘charters bad’ to ‘how do we make charters an effective form of education? How do we take advantage of the fact that they exist and how do we partner with those charter programs so that we are able to better give oversight and support?’” he said. “Everybody understands that if there is a school in your neighborhood, in your county, the best thing we can do is find ways to make that school successful. Because ultimately, that is a child who is in our county that we would like to see educated. Traditional or charter, it’s still public dollars that are being spent.”

COEs also serve diverse districts, many having a mix of small, rural, suburban and/or urban systems in their county. This requires staff and leadership to keep their fingers on the pulse of the needs of various communities and organizations.

“The same amount of work exists for a small district that exists for a large district,” Walsh said. And sometimes, as in El Dorado County Office of Education (EDCOE), a district doesn’t have the staff and capacity to complete that work, which is where the county office can help.

“Our districts really vary from very large to very small,” said El Dorado COE Board Chair Adam Clark. “One of the schools in my [trustee] area only has approximately 18 students. [It has] one teacher who is the principal and is also the superintendent. They have needs that they are not necessarily going to be able to fill through one individual. So EDCOE is going to come alongside them, bring our expertise to the table to support those gaps so that they can focus on what they’re good at, and we can provide assistance where needed to make sure that they meet the state’s requirements and their students’ needs.”

Clark is a criminal defense attorney who started his career representing juveniles in delinquency cases. “Those are the kids who are coming to and from our community schools and our jail schools,” he said. “That’s what drew me to the board that I’m on. It was an opportunity for me to learn more about the system that my clients are engaged with, help advocate for them outside the courtroom and just provide wraparound services to give them the best chance of getting through the system unscathed.”

One of his favorite aspects of the job, and a common highlight for the individuals interviewed for this article, is the chance to see students overcome the obstacles they’ve faced and graduate.

San Bernardino County Superintendent Alejandre said one of his crowning achievements has been establishing an Alternative Education Graduation Ceremony. “This annual event honors the resilience and determination of students who have overcome significant challenges to reach this milestone — including those who earned enough credits while in juvenile detention. Since our first graduating class in 2016, nearly 1,200 students have walked across the stage, a testament to their hard work and the unwavering support of our educators and staff.”

The COE’s ARISE (A Restorative Integration for Successful Engagement) program, designed to support youth previously committed to the department of juvenile justice and create pathways to success, is available to students up to 24 years old and offers credit recovery, high school diploma completion, dual enrollment and career technical education (CTE) courses.

CTE is a key offering in Ventura COE, where Teasdale said programming has recently expanded to include welding certifications, allowing participating students to go directly into the field.

El Dorado County Superintendent Ed Manansala noted that COEs often have areas of expertise, such as theirs around instructional capacity building and mental health as well as special education, where they have strong local programming and participate in two statewide initiatives. “It just shows the breadth of support that we provide, not only within our county, but throughout California,” he said. “And that’s not isolated just to El Dorado County. Other county offices may have areas of expertise that they offer statewide.”

California COEs take charge on several state-level projects, such as the ongoing development of model curriculum for Native American Studies by Humbolt and San Diego COEs. Nine COEs currently function as Geographic Lead Agencies (Geo Leads) within the Statewide System of Support and “build the capacity of other COEs in their area, coordinate and calibrate Differentiated Assistance across their area, provide Differentiated Assistance to a school district if its own COE is unable to, and identify existing resources and develop new resources in response to emerging needs,” according to the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence.

They may also step in during emergency circumstances, like in the event of wildfires, to help coordinate the most effective response possible and being an intermediary between county and local services and districts/communities.

As COEs spearhead these efforts, they contend with many of the same challenges as districts like achievement gaps, declining enrollment, chronic absenteeism, funding and staffing. Both San Bernardino and El Dorado COEs have started grow your own-style programs, such as teacher-residency initiatives, to encourage locals and staff to pursue teaching.