Phila. School District Violated IDEA, Federal Judge Rules in Class Action

The Philadelphia School District violated the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act by denying parents of autistic students the opportunity to participate in discussions about where their children would be placed from year to year within the school system, a federal judge ruled in a pair of opinions issued this week — the other one granted class certification to the plaintiffs.

U.S. District Judge Legrome Davis of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania sided with the district on the plaintiffs’ other claims, dismissing the claims that it had also violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act with its policy of shuffling students between schools that offer "autism support classrooms" for three blocked grade levels — kindergarten through second grade, third grade through fifth grade, and sixth grade through eighth grade. Some schools only offer one block and administrators don’t consult students’ parents before moving a child to a different school in order to start the next block, according to the opinions.