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Friday, August 25, 2017

Civil Rights Suits Against Schools

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the civil rights of people with autism and other disabilities

From TRAC:
The latest available data from the federal courts show that civil rights suits against schools have more than doubled during the last four years. During July 2017 the government reported 51 new civil lawsuits over alleged violations of civil rights involving schools, colleges and other educational institutions. According to the case-by-case court records analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University this brings the total of such suits to 497 during the first ten months of FY 2017. ...
If a similar pace of filings continues through the end of FY 2017, civil rights filings involving educational institutions will reach an estimated 596 during a single year. This would be the largest number recorded since the court began tracking this class of cases in October of 2011.
...
 During FY 2017, the largest volume of litigation involved the treatment of students with disabilities. Over four out of ten suits (41.6%) cited a cause of action based upon this allegation vis-à-vis students. When broader claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act and related statutes were added that might involve job applicants or employees, the percentage climbed to just under half of all suits that named disability issues.