class action against schools

August 4, 2004

Food for thought....

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/30/education/30suit.html

July 30, 2004

Students' Suit on Special Ed Becomes Class Action

By ELISSA GOOTMAN

federal judge has cleared the way for a class action lawsuit arguing that

the New York City school system has improperly removed thousands of disabled

and special education children from their classrooms, placing some of them

for months at a time in settings that lack the services they need.

The development in the suit was announced yesterday by Advocates for

Children, a nonprofit group that filed the suit two years ago. The lawsuit

charges that over the years, children with special needs have been

suspended, expelled, transferred, discharged or otherwise removed from city

schools without adequate notice, without being informed of their legal

rights, and, in some cases, without required procedures.

The students, the lawsuit argues, are sometimes placed in settings that

cannot provide the conditions or services they require and are entitled to

by law, like smaller student-teacher ratios and instruction tailored to

their special needs. Some students, it contends, are turned away without

being told where to go.

According to the complaint, the Department of Education " instituted a

policy, practice and custom " under which children with disabilities have

been " illegally excluded from school and denied educational services to

which they are entitled by federal and state law. " The complaint claims that

these students " have missed days, weeks and months of educational services. "

The lawsuit has nine plaintiffs, who are identified by their initials. The

ruling allowing the class action lawsuit to proceed was filed yesterday by

Judge P. Sifton of Federal District Court in Brooklyn.

Hyman of Advocates for Children, the students' lead lawyer, said the

practices cited in the lawsuit began before Mayor R. Bloomberg took

control of the school system and have continued.

" This is not this administration's fault. However, this administration has

been on notice of these problems since the beginning and hasn't taken any

real steps to address them, " Ms. Hyman said. " The department has basically

been turning a blind eye to the fact that thousands of children are being

improperly excluded from school and denied educational services, in

violation of federal law. "

The significance of the judge's ruling, Ms. Hyman said, is that if the

lawsuit is successful, the Department of Education could be forced to make

widespread changes in its practices instead of having to simply address the

problems of the nine plaintiffs.

The city's Department of Education declined to comment, saying it was its

policy not to discuss pending litigation.

Al-Yasid , 11, a plaintiff who was identified by his family, who is

classified as autistic but functions relatively well, spent about two months

in the fall of 2002 in a classroom by himself, visited by teachers but

without peers, even though his individualized special education program

requires that he be placed in a general education classroom with special

supplementary services, lawyers in the case said. Ina Farmer, the boy's

sister and foster parent, said he was kept in the room alone even after a

hearing officer ruled that he should be returned to a regular classroom.

This did not happen, Ms. Farmer said, until Al-Yasid became a plaintiff .

" He was very sad about it, " she said. " He would come home and ask me, 'Why

don't they like me? What did I do wrong?' "

In another case cited in the complaint, a 17-year-old student classified as

learning disabled said he was told in the spring of 2002 that he had to

transfer from one high school to another. But according to the lawsuit, the

boy was later told he could not enroll in the second school, and he was out

of school for eight months.

Another plaintiff, a disabled first grader, " spent much of the 2002-2003

school year out of his class, in the in-house suspension room and time-out

rooms, " the complaint states, adding that his mother " never received any

notice or information " about his rights. He was " denied educational services

for weeks at a time, " it states.

The suit contends that other children were sent to " alternative " centers

" that do not provide special education services or minimally adequate

regular instruction. "

" After spending weeks or months in these centers, the students fall

completely behind in their schoolwork, " the complaint said.

August 12, 2004

I would join a class action suit like this against Texas schools.