Students Sue School System, Claiming Denial of Education
By SUSAN SAULNY , NY TIMES, December 21, 2004

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The student known as Exhibit D had attended high school in Brooklyn until he was arrested and sent to a detention center a year and a half ago. After he was discharged, he said, he tried to go back to school but was turned away from one after another because of his record.

As a result, he missed 51 days of classes last year.

Seven students who say they have had similar experiences with the New York City public schools have filed a class-action lawsuit against the city and state departments of education in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The students claim that they have suffered irreparable harm by being denied their constitutional right to a basic education.

The 43-page lawsuit was filed last week with the assistance of Advocates for Children, a nonprofit group that monitors education; the Legal Aid Society; and the Manhattan law firm of Dewey Ballantine. It argues that the plaintiffs, ages 7 to 21, have been deprived of a minimally adequate education because of systemic flaws in the way the school system processes former juvenile offenders and delinquents.

According to the suit, "Schools in the community often refuse to admit class members upon their release from court-ordered settings."

It continued: "Plaintiffs and class members have spent weeks, and in some cases several months, out of school or warehoused in alternative settings where court-involved youth are segregated and that do not afford them minimally adequate educational services."

Under city regulations, the lawsuit argues, such students must be placed in a school within five days of applying, and no school can turn them away.

Jerry Russo, the press secretary for Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, said, "We are disappointed at the filing of the litigation, given the positive changes we have been making."

But lawyers for the students say that change has not happened fast enough.

"These problems began before Chancellor Klein took over, and while the department has made some recent changes, our clients' needs have yet to be addressed," said Elisa Hyman, the deputy director of Advocates for Children.

The lawyers for the students say that two-thirds of the 5,200 students released from court-ordered detention each year do not return to school, primarily because of longstanding administrative roadblocks. They want the court to order education officials to implement a "plan of correction" that would offer the students re-enrollment or remedial educational services, among other things.

Lawyers for the students say that school officials do not have a system for tracking and monitoring the enrollment and transfer of students returning to schools. They also charge that due-process rights are being denied because education officials do not provide adequate notice of the students' rights and an explanation of the procedure by which they can return to community schools.

"These are young people ready for a new start," said Nancy Rosenbloom, a staff lawyer at the Legal Aid Society. "To turn them away from the schoolhouse door is simply cruel."

Ms. Hyman added: "Resources must be dedicated toward ensuring that any involvement in the court system does not automatically derail a young person's future opportunities. Education is the key to rehabilitation."

Margaret Loftus, a lawyer who is the associate director of the Juvenile Justice Project of the Correctional Association of New York, gave the court a declaration in support of the plaintiff's motion for class-action status.

"It is our experience that young people wait weeks or even months to be re-enrolled in school," she said. "Most court-involved young people are behind their age cohort and are performing below grade level prior to their involvement with the juvenile justice system. These delays cause them to fall even further behind in school."