D.C. failed to provide students with disabilities in prison access to the education the law entitles them to, according to a new class action lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed by two students with disabilities on behalf of themselves and other impacted students, names D.C. Public Schools, the city’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education and the Federal Bureau of Prisons as defendants.
D.C. is accused of denying students access to schooling that they’re entitled to under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
In a statement, OSSE said it doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation.
“We’re really just advocating for the education rights for these young people that are being completely denied their education,” said Marja Plater, senior counsel at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.
Students who are convicted of what Plater called D.C. Code offenses serve their sentences in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, because D.C. does not have a state prison. Students with disabilities “aren’t receiving their education while serving that sentence,” she said.
That situation, Plater said, is unique. If the same students were incarcerated in Virginia or Maryland, they’d have access to the education, “because those systems have a process for them to receive that education on the state level.”
Anywhere from 40 to 60 students are either currently impacted or could be in the future, Plater said.
While the students with disabilities are in the Bureau of Prisons, Plater said there’s “no high school diploma program that they can receive special education and related services that they’re entitled to, to access their education.”
She added, “We’re dealing with a complete lack of education, which amounts to a complete denial of their educational rights.”
In 2018, The School Justice Project took a case to federal court in an attempt to get educational rights “for this very same reason,” Plater said. A District Court judge ruled that D.C. is required to provide the education to incarcerated students.
“The District’s been on notice since that time, and just hasn’t made the arrangements to provide this education to these young people,” Plater said.
Class members in the lawsuit, Plater said, “would be entitled to some level of compensatory education to repay them for the time that they’ve lost and not being able to obtain their education.”
Tayo Belle, deputy director of School Justice Project, said in a statement that “our clients have been deprived of their rights to special education instruction and services while incarcerated for violations of the D.C. Code solely because of their status as D.C. residents.”
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