A growing number of parents around the country are filing lawsuits that question whether schools and education departments have addressed the needs of special education students during the pandemic.
Vanessa Ince's daughter, Alexis, has a rare chromosomal abnormality and autism. Alexis has thrived at her public school in Wailuku, Hawaii, and loves spending time with her classmates.
They are part of a growing number of parents around the country who are suing schools and state education departments over this issue. The Ince's attorney, Keith Peck, has also filed a suit seeking class action status for all families in the state who argue their students' Individualized Education Plans have been breached during the pandemic.
Advocates and attorneys who specialize in special education tell NPR that across the country, remote learning did not work very well for many students with disabilities.First of all, students who are from low-income families are overrepresented in special education, and may not have had devices or Internet access. That can add up to"automatic denial of their free, appropriate public education," says Bill Koski.
Koski, the advocate at Stanford, says there is a widespread understanding of the difficulty districts have been in."There was almost a grace period during the shutdowns in the spring. Everybody was like, OK, this is uncharted territory." But now, he says, complaints, as well as simple requests for reevaluations, are likely to mount, which leads to its own problem: a backlog of paperwork that can lead to delays in resolving each case.
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