HOW U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE SUES STATE OF GEORGIA FOR SEGREGATING DISABLED STUDENTS! (2578 hits)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE!
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the state of Georgia for discriminating against students with disabilities, arguing the state is improperly segregating them from non-disabled students.
The department says the state is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires disabled students to be educated in the most integrated setting possible.
The system of schools in question, called the Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support, serves about 4,600 students with disabilities in the state. More than two-thirds of those students attend schools that only educate students with disabilities and that are located far from their communities. Even the students who do go to school with non-disabled students are still assigned to classrooms that are isolated from the rest of the school, the department found.
“This complaint alleges that many children in the GNETS Program are consigned to dilapidated buildings that were formerly used for black children during segregation, or to classrooms that are locked apart from mainstream classrooms, with substantially fewer opportunities of participating in extracurricular activities like music, art and sports,” U.S. Attorney John A. Horn of the Northern District of Georgia stated in the department’s announcement.
The department first brought the issue to the state’s attention in July of last year — describing school conditions where disabled students did not have any interaction with non-disabled students, and arguing their schools were of a lower quality and lacked libraries, gyms, and other spaces non-disabled students had access to, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“… many children in the GNETS Program are consigned to dilapidated buildings that were formerly used for black children during segregation…”
