Agreement reached in Gaskin Class Action suit against PA DoE

[Guest guest]

This may be of interest to our members who live in Pennsylvania. It is

a shame that this law suit was in the courts for 10 years before an

agreement could be reached. What is wrong with our department of

education? Don't they care about how our kids are treated in the PA

schools?

Phyllis

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PA Department of Education Reaches Agreement in Special Education Case

Thursday December 23, 1:54 pm ET

HARRISBURG, Pa., Dec. 23 /PRNewswire/ --

The Pennsylvania Department of Education and advocates for students

with disabilities reached an agreement this week in federal court to

settle a 10-year-old class action lawsuit.

The provisional settlement agreement addresses inclusive educational

practices for students with disabilities and will establish a new

advisory group to the Department of Education to address such issues.

The rest of the story can be found at:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041223/phth016_1.html

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PENNSYLVANIA AGREES TO CHANGES IN SPECIAL EDUCATION TO INCREASE

INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES IN REGULAR EDUCATION CLASSES.

The state of Pennsylvania and the Public Interest Law Center of

Philadelphia today concluded an historic settlement of litigation

designed to change the quality of special education services throughout

the state.

Pursuant to the agreement, the state will change how it helps its 501

school districts comply with the federal Individuals with Disabilities

Education Act and how it monitors that compliance. The settlement is

designed to increase the inclusion of students with disabilities in

regular education classes with non-disabled students.

For the rest of this press release and links to the FULL ARTICLE as well

as the SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT, go to: http://www.pilcop.org/

The agreement is in PDF form, so you need an Adobe reader to access it.

If you don't have one, just go to http://www.adobe.com/ and click on the

" Get Adobe Reader " icon on the left side of the page. Follow the

directions to download a free copy.