Case Docket   education cases Children with emotional disturbance (ED): - fail more courses, earn lower grade point averages, miss more days of school and are retained more often than other students with disabilities; - have the worst graduation rate of all disabilities; nationally, only 35% graduate from high school (compared to 76% for all students); - are more than three times as likely as other students to be arrested before leaving school; - have alarmingly high drop-out rates - and 73% of those who drop out are arrested within five years; - are twice as likely as other students with disabilities to be living in a correctional facility, halfway house, drug treatment center or "on the street" after leaving school; - are almost twice as likely as students with other disabilities to become teenage mothers.

Our School-to-Prison Reform Project aims to stem the flow of children from schools to jails by ensuring that public schools provide the special education services needed by children with emotional disturbances and learning disabilities.

These children face enormous obstacles and are far more likely than other students to wind up in juvenile detention facilities - and eventually adult prisons.

Seven of every 10 children in the juvenile justice system nationwide have some kind of educational disability. The vast majority are children with Emotional Disturbance (ED) or Specific Learning Disabilities.

Children with ED are, in fact, three times more likely than their peers to be arrested before leaving school. ED students also drop out of school at alarmingly high rates, and almost three-fourths of those who drop out are arrested within five years.

Federal law already requires that school districts offer special education services that these children desperately need. But all too often school districts ignore these requirements.

The Center and its partners - the Southern Disability Law Center and Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana - are employing a legal strategy to improve both the quality and breadth of special education services.

In February 2005, the project launched its first class action administrative complaint against the Louisiana State Department of Education after a yearlong investigation revealed that the Jefferson Parish School System was systematically violating the rights of emotionally disturbed students, most of whom were poor, African-American children. A settlement agreement (PDF) was reached in May 2006, requiring a special master to oversee a Corrective Action Plan (PDF) that will benefit as many as 1,000 children in that district.

The project has also filed class administrative complaints against the East Baton Rouge and Caddo school districts in Louisiana. Settlement agreements were reached with the East Baton Rouge district in September 2006 and the Calcasieu Parish Public School System in October 2007.

These school districts, the three largest in Louisiana, routinely suspended or expelled disabled children for minor offenses related to their disabilities. The Jefferson Parish district even segregated these students in self-contained classrooms or trailers in violation of federal and state regulations. Also, the school districts consistently failed to provide appropriate levels of related services (social work, counseling and psychological services) and vocational training to emotionally disturbed children. These practices had a pervasive and dramatic adverse impact on these students; the vast majority were typically performing several years behind their grade level and their peers by the time they reached junior high or high school. This in turn led to abysmal graduation rates and alarmingly high drop-out rates.

The School-to-Prison Reform Project plans to expand its work to other parishes in Louisiana and to other states.

The settlement agreements reached in the Louisiana cases mandate major systemic changes, including:

• Significantly increasing the frequency and duration of social work, psychological and counseling services;


• Implementing district-wide use of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports;


• Improving the students' academic progress at all grade levels;


• Eliminating many harsh and illegal disciplinary practices and policies;


• Significantly increasing access to less restrictive general education environments; and,


• Significantly expanding access to vocational training.

If you are an advocate or attorney interested in finding out more about this exciting new strategy for achieving systemic special education reform, contact Ron Lospennato.