For Immediate Release
January 26, 2021
STATEN ISLAND, NY – Today attorneys filed a major class action lawsuit challenging New York City’s segregated school system for students with disabilities on Staten Island. The lawsuit alleges that New York City’s separate school district for children with disabilities, known as District 75, denies these students an equal education, forcing them into segregated schools and classrooms without adequate resources and with no meaningful opportunity to be integrated into their community schools.
The plaintiffs, three Staten Island students with disabilities and the advocacy group Disability Rights New York, are not seeking monetary damages; rather, they seek reforms that will compel the New York City Department of Education to provide the resources necessary so that every Staten Island District 75 student has the opportunity to attend their neighborhood schools if they choose. Many Staten Island District 75 students attend schools located outside their communities and spend two hours or more commuting to school every day.
“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 (DRA). “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.”
Research has long shown that students with disabilities score higher on academic achievement tests and are more likely to graduate with a diploma as well as maintain employment when they learn in an integrated learning environment with students without disabilities. However, in many cases, being labeled as having a particular disability or needing certain supportive services has meant an automatic, segregated Staten Island District 75 placement.
“For students with disabilities, education in an integrated classroom is not just a civil right – it’s where they belong and do better,” said Lewis Bossing, Senior Staff Attorney at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. “Across the country, schools are educating students with disabilities in integrated classrooms. It is past time for New York City to end its discriminatory practices of separating students with disabilities from their non-disabled peers, by employing educational practices that have been proven to work elsewhere.”
The Plaintiffs’ complaint alleges that Staten Island District 75 students have unequal access or no access at all to school facilities, such as playgrounds, cafeterias, libraries, electives like music and art classes, and extracurricular activities like clubs and sports teams. Very few District 75 students graduate with a regular diploma, and Black students with disabilities are overrepresented in segregated District 75 schools. This lawsuit will support students with disabilities and their parents in securing quality, inclusive education in Staten Island community schools with their siblings and neighbors.
“The continued segregation of students with disabilities must stop.” said Timothy A. Clune, Executive Director of Disability Rights New York. “Now more than ever, students with disabilities must be prioritized and supported in integrated settings, not hidden away in separate buildings and classrooms. Since the majority of District 75 students are either Black or Latinx, the intersection of race and disability also cannot be ignored.”
New York City has been on notice of concerns about District 75 since at least 2008, when the Council for Great City Schools issued its City-commissioned report, “Improving Special Education in New York City’s District 75.” According to the report, “the isolation of students [is] more pronounced in the New York City school system than in other major urban school system known to the team. . . . leaving District 75 alone is not acceptable.” New York education and disability advocates have also sought reforms to District 75. But the City has continued to maintain the segregated District 75 system, instead of providing expertise and resources to Staten Island community schools so that they can enroll District 75 students.
CONTACT:
Jalyn Radziminski, Communication Manager
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
202.467.5730 x1333
Jalynr@bazelon.org
Katrin Halderman, Director of Marketing & Communications
Disability Rights New York
518.512.4929
Katrin.Haldeman@drny.org
Emily Seelenfreund, Attorney
Disability Rights Advocates
510.529.3429
eseelenfreund@dralegal.org
