[NFB-NM] FW: From Disability Scoop - Department of Education Resumes Reviewing Discrimination Complaints

[Tonia Trapp]

Disability Scoop

 

The U.S. Department of Education is reversing course after being sued over
changes to its handling of disability discrimination complaints in schools.

 

Just before Thanksgiving, the Education Department rescinded a provision
adopted in March that allowed the agency's Office for Civil Rights to
dismiss any complaint that is part of a pattern of complaints by the same
person or group that places an "unreasonable burden on OCR's resources." As
part of the changes earlier this year, the department also eliminated the
appeals process for complaints. The opportunity to appeal has now been
reinstated.

 

"It's good they're saying they're going to fix this, we just have a lack of
trust in them because of their behavior," said Eve Hill, lead attorney for
the three groups that sued. "What we need is a commitment that's
enforceable."

 

The lawsuit, which was filed in May by the National Federation of the Blind,
the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates and the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People, alleges that the changes in handling
complaints of discrimination based on disability or race were intended to
strip students of their rights.

 

Hill said she will seek a settlement agreement or other legally binding
resolution to ensure that the complaint process is not changed again.

 

She said it was troubling to dismiss complaints solely because they came
from the same person, noting that a student might encounter violations of
the law when entering school for the first time and then face them again
when entering new grades and schools.

 

"People with disabilities get discriminated against more than once in their
life, particularly if you're talking about a child," Hill said. "The fact
that one person experiences discrimination more than once, can't prevent
them from challenging that discrimination."

 

Marcie Lipsitt, a Michigan mother of a son with special needs, received a
letter in November from the Education Department saying that it would now
investigate her 662 complaints that were dismissed after the procedure
change earlier this year. She files web accessibility complaints against
school districts on behalf of students with vision, hearing and fine motor
disabilities.

 

"I feel vindicated that they reopened these complaints because these
complaints were all meritorious," Lipsitt said. "I have believed since March
5 when they unleashed these revisions that they were unlawful and
un-American."

 

In making the Education Department's recent announcement, Assistant
Secretary for Civil Rights Kenneth L. Marcus said he had reviewed the Office
for Civil Rights' case processing manual and received constructive feedback
on it.

 

"While we continue to work to improve the timeliness of OCR's case
processing, we have determined that additional revisions will help improve
our work and allow us to be more responsive to students, stakeholders and
our staff," Marcus said.

 

Lipsitt said the civil rights complaint process is an important way of
empowering families to report violations of the law without spending money
on legal fees.

 

"Civil rights complaints are free," she said. "You don't need a lawyer.
These are administrative and they can achieve the same results as federal
lawsuits."

 

 

Tonia Trapp, secretary

National Federation of the Blind of New Mexico

nfbnewmexicosecretary at gmail.com

www.nfbnm.org

 

Live the life you want.

 

The National Federation of the Blind is a community of members and friends
who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation's blind. Every day we work
together to help blind people live the lives they want.

 

 

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