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City Is Sued Over District 75 Schools For Students With Disabilities
By
Sophia Chang
Published Feb 5, 2021
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By
Sophia Chang
Published Feb 5, 2021
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The city’s separate schools for children with disabilities is under fire in a new civil rights class action lawsuit that alleges these schools deprive students of an equal education.
Three Staten Island students and the Disability Rights New York advocacy group are seeking reforms to the Department of Education’s system so that students with disabilities have the option of attending their neighborhood schools with appropriate support, instead of traveling to dedicated schools known as District 75, which serve students with moderate to severe disabilities.
More than 25,000 students attend District 75 schools in New York City, with about 2,000 students on Staten Island, according to Disability Rights New York.
The plaintiffs declined to be interviewed, but their lawyers say the separate schools mean they don’t have equal access to typical school facilities such as playgrounds, cafeterias and libraries, and different programming for electives and extracurriculars. Commuting to the District 75 schools, especially on Staten Island, can take up to two hours a day as well, the lawsuit said.
One plaintiff is identified as E.F., an 18-year-old student who was diagnosed with autism when she was four years old, according to the lawsuit. She attends P 37R The David Marquis School of the Arts, a District 75 school on the campus of Great Kills High School, though her neighborhood school is Tottenville High School which offers many electives, sports and extracurricular activities that her school lacks, the lawsuit said.
“E.F. struggles socially because she does not have age-appropriate peers without disabilities to serve as behavioral models,” the lawsuit said, and she spends her school days on vocational instruction including mopping and sweeping instead of academic achievement. With the right educational and social supports and a plan that minimizes disciplinary suspensions, E.F. should be able to attend Tottenville High School successfully, the lawsuit said.
Listen to reporter Sophia Chang's radio story for WNYC:
“The law guarantees all students a meaningful opportunity for community integration and this segregated system completely shatters that promise,” said Emily Seelenfreund, Staff Attorney at Disability Rights Advocates which is representing the plaintiffs, in a press release. “Students with disabilities deserve a rigorous education, and they are entitled to choose to receive that education alongside their neighborhood peers with and without disabilities. The City must immediately invest in providing more supportive services in Staten Island community schools, so all students have the option of an integrated educational placement.”
DOE spokesperson Danielle Filson said the students who attend District 75 schools do so on the recommendation of their advisory teams, which include their parents.
“District 75 provides high-quality learning environments for students with disabilities with extensive needs, in the least restrictive environment appropriate for them. We will review the suit,” Filson said in a statement.
The DOE said the vast majority of students with disabilities, at 85%, attend programs that are inside traditional schools and have interaction with the entire school communities, though the DRA lawsuit said, “regardless of the District 75 setting in which students are placed, District 75 students spend all or almost all of their school day segregated from students without disabilities.”
In 2008, a report from the Council of the Great City Schools found that the District 75 schools meant "the isolation of students [is] more pronounced in the New York City school system than in other major urban school systems," the lawsuit cited.
The consequences of this isolation means they don’t have “access to a curriculum that meets the requirements of a regular high school diploma, higher educational expectations set by both teachers and peers, and learning appropriate social skills and behaviors modeled by classmates without disabilities,” the lawsuit said. It also adds to stigma and fear of students with disabilities who are perceived as “as unfit to learn and unwelcome in their Staten Island community schools.”
Tagged
DOE
lawsuit
district 75
staten island
Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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