New Jersey Plaintiffs Win Major LRE Court Battle

The Federal District Court in New Jersey this week ruled that a major suit can go forward against the New Jersey Department of Education. The suit is premised on allegations that New Jersey has systemically excluded special needs students from being educated in inclusive settings. As reported:

"The complaint charges that the defendants violated both the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act by systemically placing students with disabilities in segregated, disabled-only classrooms. For years, New Jersey has had the worst record in the nation in complying with the IDEA and Section 504 mandates to educate students with disabilities in the "least restrictive environment," alongside their non-disabled peers."

Score one for the good guys! We need a whole lot more like this case to make a real dent but it is a nice start in big state.

Comments

Great for the state of New Jersey. But what about us special education parents in Washington State? In Seattle our school district didn't seat any special education students in new programs until everyone else was seated. Seattle has a "choice" enrollment where you get to pick the school where you enroll. Of course, all the good schools were booked up before the special education students were even placed. Naturally, the disabled students got placed in the crappy schools that nobody else wanted to go to. I have found data showing that special education students are served in schools nobody chooses at a 68% higher rate than other kids. And that this practice has been going on for some time. But, how can we make a case for forcing Seattle to change these placements?

[christie]

Being a special education teacher in NJ I see so many specaial education students not being placed in the LRE. I am the special education teacher in an inclusion classroom and these students are still treated unfairly. I had to fight with my co-teacher and bring in supervisor for her to include the special education students in groups with the general education students. I still don't feel that the law is being met in NJ. They have these classrooms but no one is checking on the progress. General teachers aren't understand the special ed needs and in return not knowing how to include them. Collaboration between teachers need to grow to really met the needs of the students.

[Margaret]

I am so happy to see that the courts supported the rights of the student. I teach in a segregated school, and I see students placed without enough documentation to support that all strategies have been employed with these EBD students. Most of the time we can them when the suspension days have been used up. These school systems need to held accountable to the laws.

[H]

It is sad that with NJ being such a litigious state, parents threaten to sue the district over every little thing, but the one big they do fight for is out of district placements. As if the public schools are not good enough, they are great, and here we tax payers are paying for their private school! How about fixing the ALJ's and having them stop advising the districts to settle. We all could do better by our students, special or not.