2021 Update
The Barbara McDowell Foundation provided support to our ongoing case, Georgia Advocacy Office, et al v. State of Georgia, et al. The Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, along with co-counsel the Center for Public Representation, the Georgia Advocacy Office, the Arc of the United States, the law firm of DLA Piper, and the Goodmark Law Firm, assert that the State of Georgia is discriminating against thousands of public school students with disabilities by placing them in the separate and unequal Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Supports Program (GNETS). The complaint, filed in United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, alleges that GNETS students are unnecessarily segregated and denied the opportunity to be educated in local schools alongside their non-disabled peers in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The current status of the case is that the Defendants filed a motion to dismiss, and we are waiting on a decision from the Court. In addition, we are preparing to file a motion for class certification.
This case will have significant impact in Georgia. Approximately 5,200 students with disabilities are in the GNETS system. As described in our complaint, GNETS operates 53 segregated “centers,” where only children with disabilities are enrolled, as well as satellite classrooms, also segregated by disability, attached to numerous neighborhood schools. In addition, GNETS students are disproportionately children of color – 54 percent versus 37 percent in all public schools statewide. In half of the GNETS schools, the number of African-American students is more than 50 percent. And in one program, 9 out of every 10 students are African American.
Legal Director Ira Burnim states, “The grant from the Barbara McDowell Foundation allowed us to make a significant investment in the case, allowing it to move forward, including recruiting a team of impressive experts."
2022 Update
On March 19, 2020, the court overseeing the case denied the State’s motion to dismiss the complaint, finding for plaintiffs on all issues. The court acknowledged the plaintiffs’ contentions that unnecessary segregation in GNETS schools and classrooms stigmatizes students with disabilities, in violation of the ADA, and held that the State must demonstrate a substantial interest in segregating the students to show that such segregation is constitutional. The court’s decision permitted fact-finding in the case to begin and we are currently in the discovery phase. The Court denied our (delayed) request that our case be consolidated with a parallel case filed by the U.S. Department of Justice being heard by another judge. Nonetheless, we and DOJ are collaborating. One of our experts will soon tour some of the regional GNETS programs. It looks like the funding structure for GNETS may be changing, in large part as a result of our case. If that change occurs, we will need to evaluate its impact. One possibility is that we will join some local school districts as defendants.
The Atlantic, “The Separate, Unequal Education of Students with Special Needs,” March 21, 2017, by Timothy Pratt: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/03/the-separate-unequal-education-of-students-with-special-needs/520140/
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Georgia psychoeducational schools an unconstitutional 'dumping ground,' new suit claims,” October 11, 2017, by Alan Judd :https://www.ajc.com/blog/investigations/georgia-psychoeducational-schools-unconstitutional-dumping-ground-new-suit-claims/698hchLBUFX35kriOQGRkK/
The New Yorker, “Georgia’s Separate and Unequal Special –Education System,” September 24, 2018, by Rachel Aviv: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/01/georgias-separate-and-unequal-special-education-system
Click here to see the original grant, including the six-month and year-end reports.