The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Middlesex Superior Court alleges the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education failed to adequately provide or supervise necessary special education services for eligible students housed in county correctional facilities. .
According to the complaint, incarcerated students with disabilities with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) are provided with “only minimal services” in county jails by DESE and are routinely excluded from receiving special education services. is said to be undervalued.
The lawsuit is filed by the Public Defender Service, a division of the statewide public defender's office, on behalf of three inmates, ages 18, 20, and 21, housed in Norfolk, Plymouth, and Essex counties. It was initiated by the EdLaw Project Committee and the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee. He was taken to prison and identified only as “John Doe.” Their IEP specifically indicates emotional disturbance and the need for speech therapy.
“DESE leaves everything else specified in the IEP up to the local school district and does little to ensure that. [houses of correction] “Staff members and local schools actually performed their assigned duties,” the complaint states, alleging the department violates state law requiring such guidance.
In an emailed statement late Tuesday, a DESE spokesperson said DESE “will review the lawsuit and is committed to ensuring that all students with disabilities receive the services they deserve.”
Collectively, this action represents a statewide population of 18- to 22-year-olds who are serving time in county jails and have IEPs, but are not receiving the array of services to which they are entitled under state law. Trying to. The expected number of classes is expected to be in the hundreds.
A 2022 report by the Massachusetts advocacy group Citizens for Juvenile Justice estimates that correctional facilities underestimated nearly 200 youth with IEPs between 2018 and 2020. .
About half of those incarcerated in the Department of Youth Services receive special education services, but currently only 2% of 18- to 22-year-olds in county jails, or 12 students in 15 correctional facilities, receive special education services. I received such service. in February, according to the complaint.
“While we have represented students in individual lawsuits, we have found that those efforts alone are not enough to bring about the necessary changes, which is why we have decided to move forward with a class action lawsuit. '' said Elizabeth. Mr. Levitan is an attorney on the EdLaw Project Committee.
According to the complaint, there is no clear system for identifying incarcerated youth with IEPs, and the burden often falls on the students themselves to inform correctional facility staff. The instruction provided to students typically consists of a “depleted” curriculum in math and reading, limited to two hours per week, while a limited staff of “2.4 full-time equivalent teachers” across all 15 schools Responsible for providing special education in all dormitories. Corrections in the state, according to the lawsuit.
Denial of special education services to incarcerated youth reduces their chances of graduating from high school, limits future employment opportunities, and increases their exposure to poverty and mental health problems, the lawsuit says. claims.
Massachusetts law requires that all eligible students with disabilities have access to special education services until they are 22 years old. For decades after a Massachusetts federal court granted an injunction on a similar complaint in 1981, DESE provided special education services directly to incarcerated youth by certified employees. field. But in recent years, the department has started turning its attention to local school districts, contracting with nonprofit education service agencies to provide services, according to plaintiffs' attorneys.
“They are [DESE] was not provided [services] directly. And that's where everything kind of really fell apart for these students,” Levitan said. “They promulgated regulations that limited their liability and placed much of the blame on the school district. I did,” he said.
“Our position is that the wording of the law is very clear and that it is DESE's responsibility to provide special education services, but DESE at least needs to ensure that that happens, but that they has done neither,''' Levitan added.
The complaint asks DESE to create and implement a system to better identify youth incarcerated on IEPs. Provide special education services consistent with the IEP. and to provide at least 27.5 hours of general curriculum instruction per week to all special education students in the county jail.
In October, the state Education Department came under federal scrutiny over its oversight of special education programs, including whether it properly investigated complaints about the quality of instruction for students with disabilities in local school districts.