A nationwide chain of day care centers has agreed to settle federal litigation accusing it of disability discrimination.

Spring Education, formerly known as Nobel Learning Communities, agreed to adopt an Americans With Disability Act-compliant policy concerning children with disabilities that impact their ability to be toilet trained.

The settlement comes after the company was sued by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey in 2017 for expelling a 4-year-old girl with Down syndrome because she failed to meet its strict standards for toilet training. The suit alleged the company violated the ADA by discriminating against the child, known as M.M., and her parents after it refused to modify its standard toileting policy and then expelling the child.

The school said it did not provide diapering services to children in that age group, even though the girl's parents presented a note from her physician stating she would not become toilet trained until at least age 5 because of her developmental delays.

The policy change will apply to seven Spring Education facilities in New Jersey, and more than 150 schools in 16 other states and Washington, D.C. The settlement also calls for Spring Education to maintain rigorous reporting requirements, inform current and prospective families about the policy change, and train current and future employees on the policy. The settlement also calls for the school to pay a $30,000 civil penalty to the United States and $18,000 as damages to the child.

"Equal opportunity is the core American value that is protected by the ADA and advanced by today's agreement," U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said in a statement announcing the settlement. "With this agreement, we ensure that children with disabilities attending SEI's daycare facilities in New Jersey and across the United States receive the protection to which they are entitled under the law. We are proud to continue our vigorous enforcement of the ADA in New Jersey and will continue to root out discrimination to the fullest extent of the law."

In December 2018, U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman ordered the school operators to comply with a broad request for discovery about its diaper-changing policies, a step Spring Education resisted.

The school's expulsion of the child also prompted a suit against the company by the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, but that case was dismissed in 2017. The Appellate Division affirmed that dismissal in October.

In 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice brought an action against Nobel Learning Communities in Pennsylvania, alleging the company had a pattern or practice of discriminating against children with disabilities. The parties settled that lawsuit in 2011.

Spring Education's attorney, Bonnie Hoffman, of the Philadelphia office of Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller, did not return a call seeking comment.