Between 2020-21 and 2024-25, Washington and Wilson, two of the four elementary schools in the Caldwell-West Caldwell district, sharply reduced how many students they identify as having a disability. The district's other two schools did not. No neighboring district did either. Every number on this page comes from public New Jersey state records.
The district's stated mission is to "foster, inspire, and champion learning for all."
That is the mission on the district's own homepage. This page looks at what the state's own data shows for the children in this district who are most likely to need that support.
Washington and Wilson are the two schools that dropped. Washington shows the pattern most sharply, so several figures below are Washington's. Each is drawn from New Jersey Department of Education data or public reporting, with sources at the bottom.
The share of students identified as having a disability fell sharply at both schools over four years. Washington went from 18.2% to 9.8% and Wilson from 19.0% to 12.4%, while the district average barely moved. The full table below shows every school in the district, so you can compare them side by side.
| School year | Washington | Wilson | Lincoln | Jefferson | Grover Cleveland (MS) | James Caldwell (HS) | District avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | 18.2% | 19.0% | 15.0% | 21.6% | 17.3% | 19.4% | 19.1% |
| 2021-22 | 14.3% | 22.3% | 14.0% | 18.6% | 15.9% | 18.7% | 18.0% |
| 2022-23 | 10.6% | 19.6% | 12.9% | 14.4% | 18.2% | 17.2% | 16.7% |
| 2023-24 | 9.4% | 13.9% | 11.3% | 19.0% | 17.2% | 17.3% | 16.3% |
| 2024-25 | 9.8% | 12.4% | 12.9% | 21.1% | 15.4% | 16.9% | 16.0% |
Both schools ended far below where they started and far below the district. At Washington, the share of economically disadvantaged students more than doubled over the same period, so the school was taking in more high-need students while identifying fewer of them.
Going back to 2015-16, Washington's classification rate held between about 16 and 18 percent for six straight years. It fell only after a new superintendent and a new director of special services arrived in 2021. This is not a slow drift, and it is not a coincidence. It is a sharp break that lines up with the change in leadership.
The last two points before the drop are the COVID years, 2019-20 and 2020-21, and both sit near the top of the range, at 17.8 and 18.2 percent. So this is not a COVID effect. Washington classified students at its usual rate straight through the pandemic, and the decline began only in the first year under new leadership.
Caldwell-West Caldwell has six schools: four elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school. Across all of them, only Washington and Wilson cut their classification rates sharply. The other four, including the middle school and the high school, barely moved.
The middle school and the high school, where pull-out resource instruction was never eliminated, are among the four schools that held steady. The sharp drop appears at only two of the district's six schools, both elementary. If the cause were district-wide, every school would move together. They did not, which points to something specific to Washington and Wilson rather than to the district or its students as a whole.
As the decline began in 2021, the district brought in a new superintendent and a new director of special services. At the building level, the two schools that dropped both saw principal turnover during these years. Wilson, after eleven years under a single principal, cycled through three principals in two years. The other four schools, including the middle school and the high school, kept the same principal throughout the five years shown.
| School | Principal | 5-year change |
|---|---|---|
| Washington | new principal in 2022 | -8.4 |
| Wilson | three principals in two years, 2020-2022 | -6.6 |
| Lincoln | same principal since 2011 | -2.1 |
| Jefferson | same principal all five years | -0.5 |
| Grover Cleveland (middle) | same principal all five years | -1.9 |
| James Caldwell (high) | same principal since 2015 | -2.5 |
This does not prove that any one person caused the change, and it is not meant to. But the pattern is worth seeing plainly. The two buildings where the principal turned over are the two where the numbers turned. The four buildings with stable leadership, including the middle school and the high school, are the ones that held. And the district-wide decision to end pull-out resource at the elementary level was made by a superintendent and a director of special services who both arrived as the decline began.
Five-year change in special education classification rate at nearby elementary schools. Only Washington and Wilson, both in Caldwell-West Caldwell, fell sharply. This is the clearest sign that the change is local, not regional.
Among 34 elementary schools across 11 nearby districts, Washington has the second-lowest classification rate. The only school lower sits in one of the wealthiest districts in the state. Washington serves a far more economically diverse community, yet classifies students at the same low rate.
One common explanation is that Washington simply has fewer students who need help. If that were true, the school would be doing well. Instead, Washington has the weakest results of any elementary school in the district.
| School | Classification rate | State accountability rating |
|---|---|---|
| Lincoln | 12.9% | 82.8 |
| Wilson | 12.4% | 82.6 |
| Jefferson | 21.1% | 57.9 |
| Washington | 9.8% | 41.7 |
What is a state accountability rating? It is the state's overall report card score for a school, on a scale of 0 to 100. It mostly measures how well students are doing on state tests. A higher number is better.
Here is why that matters. If Washington identifies so few students because its children simply need less help, you would expect the school to be doing well. Instead, Washington has the lowest score in the district, 41.7, far below the others. So the school that identifies the fewest children as needing help is also the school where children are struggling the most. That is what you would expect to see if students who need help are being missed, not if they never needed help in the first place.
Washington classifies students at about the same rate as two of the most affluent elementary schools in New Jersey, while serving a community roughly ten times more economically disadvantaged than they are.
| School | Economically disadvantaged | Classification rate |
|---|---|---|
| Glenwood (Millburn) | 0.6% | 8.3% |
| Mount Pleasant (Livingston) | 0.7% | 10.0% |
| Washington (Caldwell-West Caldwell) | 7.6% | 9.8% |
In plain terms, Washington identifies about the same small share of its students as schools in two of the wealthiest towns in New Jersey, even though Washington has roughly ten times as many low-income students. Low-income students tend to need more support, not less. So a school like Washington would normally identify more students than Millburn or Livingston, not the same small number they do.
These are fair questions, and they deserve straight answers. Here are the three most common ones, and what the public data says about each.
The classification rate is a share of current enrollment, not a single group of children who age out. If identified students were simply moving up, the middle and high school rates would rise as those students arrived. They did not. They held steady, and the elementary schools take in a new young class every year, so a steady four-year decline means fewer new students are being identified, not students aging out.
A one-year wobble would be noise. This is a steady decline over four straight years, at two schools at the same time, that lines up with a specific documented change in how services are delivered. Random variation does not move two schools the same direction, that far, for that long.
Identifying a child as having a disability comes before, and is separate from, deciding where the help happens. Moving to inclusion changes the setting, not whether a child qualifies for help in the first place. Yet at the two schools that went inclusion only, the share of children identified at all fell by nearly half, while the schools that kept pull-out held steady. The change in identification tracks the change in model, at exactly the schools where the model changed.
These are facts on the public record, from board meetings and contemporaneous local news coverage.
| Date | On the public record |
|---|---|
| Summer 2021 | A new superintendent and a new director of special services begin in the district. These are the two positions that set special education policy across all of its schools. |
| 2021-22 | The district's special education classification rate at Washington and Wilson begins a multi-year decline. |
| 2022 | Pull-out resource room is no longer offered as a placement option at the elementary level. The Superintendent later states publicly that "in our elementary schools, services are provided exclusively through in-class resource models." |
| April 21, 2025 | The Caldwell-West Caldwell Education Association votes no confidence in the Director of Special Services, 225 to 17, about 90 percent of those voting. Members specifically cite the elimination of pull-out resource at the K-5 level. Reported by TAPInto West Essex, and recorded on the district's video of the meeting. |
Pull-out resource room is a setting where a student leaves the general classroom for focused, small-group instruction. Eliminating it at the elementary level removes a placement that an individualized education team would otherwise be able to choose for a child who needs it.
On April 21, 2025, after about 90 percent of the teachers' association voted no confidence in the Director of Special Services, educators, parents, and a student spoke to the Board of Education. The district responded. The accounts below come from reporting by TAPInto West Essex. You can watch the meeting yourself on the district's own video recording.
"It's important to emphasize that we, as educators, are not opposed to the inclusion model. I have personally taught inclusion for over 20 years, have a strong co-teacher, and continually work to revamp and rethink my lessons with my colleagues. We are fully supportive of inclusion, but we believe it's not a one size fits all solution. Every child learns differently and succeeds in their own way. We advocate for each child to receive the placement that best meets their individual educational needs."
The president of the teachers' association. At the April 2025 public board meeting, reported by TAPInto West Essex.
"People are targeted and are fearful of reprisals. We were threatened with legal action, but despite the threats, we are here because we care."
A former president of the teachers' association. At the April 2025 public board meeting, reported by TAPInto West Essex.
"Inclusion only is not amenable to differentiated instruction. Some students need a different pace in order to succeed."
A teacher with 31 years in the district. At the April 2025 public board meeting, reported by TAPInto West Essex.
"My twin sister was placed in an inclusion class. She was set up for failure, and it destroyed her self-esteem."
A classified student, a junior at the high school. At the April 2025 public board meeting, reported by TAPInto West Essex.
"Do you trust your teachers? We care about our children. If you care, listen to your teachers."
A parent. At the April 2025 public board meeting, reported by TAPInto West Essex.
"There is a fear of retaliation, retribution and a civil suit. Ninety percent is not a whisper, it is a roar. Trust us when we roar."
A special education teacher of 13 years who later became a counselor. At the April 2025 public board meeting, reported by TAPInto West Essex.
The district disputed the educators' account and explained how it places students. Superintendent Christopher Conklin responded in a statement and interview with TAPInto West Essex.
"Currently, our district offers both in-class resource and pull-out resource room programs. In our elementary schools, services are provided exclusively through in-class resource models. At the middle and high school levels, students may receive support through either in-class or pull-out resource room programs, depending on their individual educational needs."
Superintendent Christopher Conklin, in a statement to TAPInto West Essex.
"Special education is not a place, it is a service. All services are designed to meet each student's unique needs in accordance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the New Jersey Special Education Administrative Code."
Superintendent Christopher Conklin, in a statement to TAPInto West Essex.
"The type and level of services are decided by the IEP team, which includes educators, specialists, parents, and when appropriate the student, not by any individual administrator. If a pull-out program is recommended in a student's IEP and the student's needs warrant it, the district provides it."
Superintendent Christopher Conklin, in a statement to TAPInto West Essex.
On the union's count of departures, Conklin said the figure of 26 was not accurate. He said 16 special education teachers resigned over four years, not counting retirements, primarily for personal reasons such as family leave, relocation, career changes, or higher pay and shorter commutes. He put this at about four per year, under 8 percent of the district's 54 special education teachers. He defended the director's leadership and character, said there is no violation of any provision of the New Jersey Special Education Administrative Code, and described the public demonstration by staff as disruptive.
Notice that the superintendent's own description, that the elementary schools provide services only through in-class resource while the middle and high schools still offer pull-out, lines up exactly with the pattern in the data on this page. The drop in students identified for special education shows up at the elementary schools, and not at the middle or high school.
Special education classification is how a public school commits, in writing and by law, to evaluate a child and provide the support that child needs. When a school's classification rate falls this far, this fast, and this far out of step with every neighboring district, it raises a fair question for any parent: is my child being identified and served, or quietly passed over.
This page does not ask you to take anyone's word for it. The numbers are the state's own. You can look them up yourself using the sources below, and decide what they mean for your family and your community.
Every figure on this page is from a public source. Classification rates, enrollment, economic-disadvantage shares, and accountability ratings come from the New Jersey Department of Education School Performance Reports, which the state publishes for every school and district. The regional comparison uses the same reports for each neighboring district. The April 2025 no-confidence vote and the Superintendent's statement on elementary services are from contemporaneous local news coverage. The most recent year shown is 2024-25, which the state released on May 21, 2026. The 2025-26 figures are not yet public and are not expected until about spring 2027.
This is an independent, volunteer project presenting public data. It is not affiliated with any school district or government agency. Figures are presented in good faith from public records and may be refined as additional records are released.