Lawyers for thousands of special-needs children in the District of Columbia are taking the city back to court, alleging the Fenty administration is routinely violating their federal rights to a quality education.
In a letter to D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles, the lawyers say they’re going to ask U.S. Judge Paul Friedman to sanction the city for routinely violating federal deadlines on testing, treating and caring for children in the $300 million special education system.
Mayor Adrian Fenty has said publicly that he would risk “everything” to fix the city’s $1 billion school system. He has laid his bet on schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and her pledge to bring accountability to the schools.
But Rhee’s efforts have met spotty results. She already is on her third special ed director in less than two years, and her efforts to create a school for emotionally disturbed children on the far eastern edge of the city was called “a disaster” by a federal court monitor. The lawyers’ letter, filed last week by lead counsel Ira Burnim, suggests that two years of reforms haven’t made a dent in the failing special ed system.
The collapse of the special ed system has led to thousands of children being shipped to clinics and schools around the country, where some have been exposed to abuse or neglect. The city is under two separate consent decrees stemming from class-action lawsuits over its abysmal special education system. Burnim is lead counsel in a lawsuit alleging widespread failure to meet federal deadlines for testing and treating disabled kids.
Rhee declined comment. Nickles said the lawyers’ letter was actually recognition that the reforms were working.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a series of judicial orders on a public school system in Arizona. The court held that the judges cannot impose orders on other branches of government unless plaintiffs can demonstrate that their rights are being continually violated. Nickles said the Supreme Court decision put a whole host of consent decrees in jeopardy.
“It’s an amazing decision,” Nickles said. “The plaintiffs appreciate that this case is going away.”
Burnim didn’t respond to requests for comment.
