No. California only allows school districts to appoint “retired teachers, social workers, and probation officers who are not employees of any agency that is involved in the care of the child” as a surrogate parent.[1] “Any agency involved in the care of the child” includes the child welfare agency, probation, short-term residential treatment program (“STRTP”) or group home. The law does explicitly state the same restrictions for juvenile courts when appointing educational rights holders. However, if the legislature excluded social workers and probation officers from being appointed by school districts to be surrogate parent, it is unlikely the legislature intended that courts appoint these individuals as substitute decision makers for special education students either. Moreover, both state and federal special education law prohibit the state, when the child is a ward of the state, from acting in the role of the parent.[2]