On May 10th, 2006, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed an administrative complaint with the Louisiana Department of Education on behalf of several students of the East Baton Rouge Public School system with Emotional Disturbances (ED) claiming violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA). The complainants asked for systematic changes that would benefit all students with ED as well as individualized support to offset the previous disadvantages of the specific plaintiffs.

Specifically the students claimed that the school did not make appropriate changes to their Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) when they would have been necessary and appropriate, and that they were not educated in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE), causing them to effectively be removed from a track that would lead to successful graduation.

On September 18th, 2006 the students and the school district came to a mediation agreement. In the agreement, the defendant agreed to the hiring of team of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports experts to develop and implement staff training for all schools with ED children, to reduce the number of suspensions and expulsions of children with ED, to comply strictly with the IDEA's disciplinary requirements, to better place children with ED in their LREs, and to grant access to intensive reading and math support for children with ED who are at least two years behind their grade level. In addition, the defendant agreed to provide individualized tutoring to the plaintiffs that were harmed by the absence of the aforementioned improvements in the previous school years.

Kim Zhang - 03/13/2014


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