On October 18, 2016, families in Flint, Michigan filed this putative class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The case was assigned to Judge Arthur J. Turnow. The plaintiffs sued the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), Flint Community Schools (FCS), and the Genesee Intermediate School District (GISD) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400, § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. They alleged that the state of Michigan and local educators violated federal law by not screening to identify students who needed special education services. They further argued that the defendants had violated the rights of students with disabilities in the imposition of school discipline, including illegal suspensions and expulsions. The Flint parents and children were represented by the ACLU of Michigan and private counsel.
Specifically, the plaintiffs alleged that children attending these schools were at risk of developing a disability due to their prolonged exposure to lead. Despite that risk, the schools had a pattern and practice of systematically failing to provide ongoing screening and timely referrals for evaluations to identify qualifying disabilities. Also, the schools systematically failed to provide students with disabilities with safeguards and had a pattern of using unduly harsh disciplinary measures with students with disabilities, including physical restraints and seclusion techniques. (For more information on the Flint water crisis, which involved claims of widespread lead exposure from the City's drinking water, see
Waid v. Snyder.)
On December 8, 2016, FCS and MDE each filed a motion to dismiss, alleging that the plaintiffs had failed to exhaust their administrative remedies and that the complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. On December 15, GISD moved for judgment on the pleadings, using the same reasoning. On July 7, 2017, the defendants moved to stay discovery pending these motions, and the court granted this request on August 24, 2017. 2017 WL 3642131. On September 29, 2017, the court denied GISD and MDE’s motions to dismiss, in their entirety. The court granted FCS's motion in part and denied it in part, granting dismissal of the plaintiffs' claim regarding universal preschool but denying the rest of the motion.
On October 16, 2017, the plaintiffs moved for a preliminary injunction requiring the defendants to comply with their child-find obligations (their obligations to identify and evaluate children with disabilities) under state and federal law.
That same day, the defendants appealed the denial of the motion to dismiss to the Sixth Circuit. (Docket Number: 17-2255). On October 24, the defendants moved to stay District Court proceedings, arguing that the District Court now lacked jurisdiction because the defendants had filed an appeal. The court denied this request on November 2, 2017, because denials of motions to dismiss are generally not appealable, so the defendants’ appeal would likely be dismissed. 2017 WL 5010773.
On November 28, 2017, as predicted by the district court, the Sixth Circuit dismissed the appeal. 2017 WL 6947900. The panel of judges was made up of Judge Richard Suhrheinrich, Judge Raymond Kethledge, and Judge Denise Hood. In district court, the parties moved forward with discovery and settlement discussions.
On April 9, 2018, the parties reached a partial settlement agreement as to the plaintiffs’ child-find claims. This mooted out the plaintiffs’ October 2017 motion for a preliminary injunction. This settlement required the defendants to implement a screening and assessment program for the next five years and report its progress back to the plaintiffs every six months for at least the next two years. On April 12, 2017, at the request of the parties, the court incorporated this settlement agreement into a court order and dismissed the plaintiffs’ child-find claims with prejudice.
As of February 7, 2020, the case is ongoing. The partial settlement only resolved the child-find issues; all of the plaintiffs’ other claims are still in dispute. The final pretrial conference is set for March 16, 2020, and the court retains jurisdiction to enforce the partial settlement agreement until April 2023.
Ginny Lee - 02/02/2017
Rebecca Strauss - 06/06/2018
Alec Richards - 02/07/2020
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