NBC Channel 4 News in New York City announced 16 families have filed a class action lawsuit against the New York City Department of Education for failure to provide transitional services for students with disabilities.
State and Federal law require transition services be a part of a student’s IEP in high school. This helps the special needs student to adjust to life after high school. This could include vocational training which requires a vocational assessment. The families allege the NYC DOE never provided even an option for these services in the students’ IEPs.
According to the link, found here, http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/New-York-City-Department-of-Education-Lawsuit-Students-With-Disabilities-281687471.html the DOE didn’t allow for these students to be given these services which are mandated. When the suit was filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District the one student and his parents went on the news to discuss the suit. Gary Mayerson, the attorney who filed the lawsuit, believes these services may have been denied to “tens of thousands of students”.
The NYC DOE responded as follows:
“The DOE is committed to providing the services our students need to thrive in and out of the classroom, and we are working with this school and the student’s family to ensure that we provide the student with appropriate services.”
This lawsuit could have tremendous impact on special education not only in NYC but potentially across the country. Recent laws passed by the Federal Government have disallowed the use of companies paying anything less than minimum wage to persons with disabilities.
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