D.C. students with disabilities detained at the Youth Services Center and the D.C. Jail are being denied, in wholesale fashion, a free, appropriate, public education (“FAPE”) to which they are entitled under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (“IDEA”) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
For the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, DCPS has failed to provide students with disabilities at the Youth Services Center (“YSC”) and the Inspiring Youth Program (“IYP”) with FAPE and has not issued any plan to ensure that students at YSC and IYP will receive a FAPE during the 2020-21 school year. A coalition of education advocacy organizations have presented a demand letter to Dr. Lewis Ferebee, Chancellor of the DC Public Schools, and Hanseul Kang, State Superintendent at the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, urging them to create a comprehensive plan to educate these children appropriately.
For the last six months, students at YSC and IYP have not received any specialized instruction or related services on their Individualized Education Plans (“IEPs”). They have had no access- virtual or otherwise- to teaching professionals. They have not received any direct instruction and there has been no communication with teachers. Instead, the students have only received generic work packets distributed and collected by correctional staff. Equally troubling, these work packets are not differentiated according to individual students’ needs. When students have submitted their assignments, they have not received any feedback from their teachers. And, four students who graduated from IYP were denied an opportunity to participate in their virtual graduation ceremony. What this troubling narrative depicts is a complete cessation of special educational services to perhaps the most vulnerable student population DCPS serves.
“It is inexcusable that the District is failing to provide these children with a basic education. The District’s kids are entitled to special education and related services tailored to meet their individual needs. Failing to provide an appropriate education, virtual or otherwise, while giving them generic packets that don’t even provide basic education and instruction is unacceptable. The message we are giving these citizens of the District is that their education is not a priority, or worse, that they don’t matter. The District Leadership responsible for the oversight of education of detained, disabled young people must address this crisis immediately.” said Margaret Hart, Counsel for the Washington Lawyers’ Committee.
The coalition includes the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, Georgetown’s Juvenile Justice Initiative, Advocates for Justice in Education, and the law firm of Terris, Pravlil, and Millian, as well as other education advocacy organizations.
