One Step Forward, One Step Back For Students With Disabilities?

Thirteen years after a family sued the San Francisco school district over its lack of adherence with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the district has installed its last elevators, ramps, and accessible toilets in its schools.

The district spent $250 million to fix 50,000 violations, the San Francisco Chronicle reported this week.

The work entailed adding elevators, wheelchair ramps, new light switches, wider doorways, wheelchair lifts, Braille signs, and water fountains accessible from wheelchairs, the Chronicle reported. In the process, the district spent another $550 million to upgrade schools in other ways, including replacing roofs, heating systems, windows, repainting, repaving playgrounds, and so on.

Complying with the ADA took so long in part because San Francisco has the oldest school building inventory in California and the city's hilly landscape made work more challenging, the school district's facilities director told the newspaper.

Another 50 schools and district buildings not part of the lawsuit still have to be upgraded to comply with ADA. 

Read more of Nirvi Shah's On Special Education article HERE.

Changing Special Education by Lawsuit

While it's common in the land of lawsuits for one party to ask the judge to dismiss a case and for that request to be denied, I thought it was worth noting that last week, a judge refused to dismiss a case brought against the Louisiana Department of Education, among other defendants, that claims widespread problems with special education in the state.

The federal suit, filed in October, says students with disabilities have been either completely denied enrollment on the basis of their disability, or forced to attend schools unwilling or unable to meet their educational needs.

Read more of Nirvi Shah's On Special Education article HERE.