After 蜜桃传媒 complaint, DOJ finds Georgia program violates disabilities act
Four years after the 蜜桃传媒 filed a civil rights complaint, the U.S. Department of Justice has found that Georgia discriminates against students with disabilities by segregating them from other students.
It鈥檚 difficult for students with behavioral disabilities in Georgia to not feel singled out.
The state often segregates them from other students, placing them in dirty, run-down schools 鈥� including some that black students attended during the Jim Crow era. These schools frequently lack gymnasiums, labs and playgrounds. Sometimes the classes aren鈥檛 even taught by a teacher. Instead, students may spend their day taking computer-based courses.
Even when these students attend regular schools, they may be relegated to a wing of the school with a separate entrance 鈥� preventing them from interacting with other children. One school even had a metal detector in the entrance for the students with disabilities, but not the entrance for other students.
鈥淪chool is like a prison where I am in the weird class,鈥� one student told federal investigators. Another described feeling like an 鈥渙utcast.鈥� A parent was even more direct: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a warehouse for kids the school system doesn鈥檛 want or know how to deal with.鈥�
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reported these findings earlier this month after investigating a discrimination complaint filed by the 蜜桃传媒 in 2011. The DOJ found that the state鈥檚 program for students with disabilities, the Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support (GNETS), was unnecessarily segregating these students 鈥� a violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which was signed into law 25 years ago this month.
The DOJ found that 鈥渘early all鈥� of the 5,000 students in the GNETS program could be integrated with students without disabilities. In a letter to Gov. Nathan Deal and the state attorney general, the DOJ urges the state to develop a plan to address the violations, warning that a lawsuit is possible if the state continues to break the law.
The 蜜桃传媒 has filed numerous civil rights complaints and lawsuits under the ADA to help students with disabilities in the Deep South obtain the services required under the law. In New Orleans, for example, the 蜜桃传媒 last year reached a landmark agreement to settle a suit alleging that children with disabilities were frequently left behind by the city鈥檚 system of charter schools 鈥� discouraged from attending many schools, subjected to disciplinary removals without respect for their rights, and denied important services.
鈥楾oo many children are languishing鈥�
The DOJ鈥檚 action could be felt beyond Georgia. By finding that an entire state program violates the ADA 鈥� a remarkably broad use of the act 鈥� other states may apply new, and potentially stricter, scrutiny to their programs for students with disabilities.
听鈥淲e鈥檙e glad that the Department of Justice has taken action to ensure that these students have equal access to a quality education and hope that the state takes the findings seriously,鈥� said Rhonda Brownstein, 蜜桃传媒 legal director. 鈥淭oo many children are languishing under this discriminatory program.鈥�
School funding is at the root of much of the segregation. When the 蜜桃传媒 filed its complaint four years ago, it described how the state鈥檚 funding scheme encourages districts to needlessly segregate students with disabilities to receive more money.
The DOJ found that the state was 鈥渦nnecessarily relying on, and creating incentives for school districts to choose, a segregated GNETS program to provide behavioral and mental health services.鈥�
The DOJ鈥檚 letter noted that Georgia spends almost $70 million annually to serve the nearly 5,000 students in this program. It cited a state audit that found in 2009 the state could have spent a minimum of $42 million to serve these students in regular schools rather than segregating them, which cost $58 million at that time.
Because they were segregated, the DOJ found, students were denied 鈥渟ome of the most basic elements of a typical childhood school experience.鈥� Its letter details how these students often long for simple school experiences: One student wanted a locker like 鈥渘ormal鈥� high school students.听 Another desperately wanted to have her picture included in a yearbook 鈥� just like her friends who are not in the program.
鈥淲e hope that what has happened in Georgia will spur other states to take steps to ensure they鈥檙e complying with disabilities law,鈥� Brownstein said. 鈥淭hese students shouldn鈥檛 be shunned and stigmatized by their school district.鈥�
