Law firm calls for probe into North Carolina district after 4 complaints from autistic students 

A nonprofit law firm has requested a systemic investigation into one of North Carolina’s districts after filing four complaints this year on behalf of families with autistic students.

“Just based on the trends that we’ve seen with the four students that we’ve represented, tells us that there’s something that needs to be looked into in terms of the system,” attorney Glynnis Hagins told NPR’s WUNC.

“My impression of what’s going on in Johnston County Schools is that it is a first resort to separate and exclude the kids before coming back to the table and talking about whether that’s an appropriate decision or not.”

However, the state’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has declined the request initiated by the Sept. 16 complaint, the fourth one filed by Disability Rights NC.

“While individual findings of noncompliance may occur for students with the same disability, this alone does not establish a pattern indicative of a systemic violation,” the department said in a written statement.

‘Being deprived of his right to education’

Hagins is representing “KS,” a teenager with autism, limited verbal speech and a moderate intellectual disability, according to WUNC.

“The complaint alleges that the school took away his communication device, and afterward he ‘experienced a rapid deterioration in behavior.’”

Against his family’s wishes, the school reduced the teenager’s class time to less than four hours a week – even though he was already on a modified schedule – and suspended him for 40 days in the previous academic year, WUNC reported.

“Behavior is communication,” Hagins said. “It is not surprising KS struggled with behaviors and was unable to keep up with his schoolwork, as we know he wants to do, especially when the school took away his communication device and did not provide him with the supports he needed and was entitled to.”

All students with disabilities have the right to the least restrictive environment possible so they can receive a free, appropriate public education, according to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

“The complaint alleges that the student is being deprived of his right to education and the ability to spend time at school learning, eating lunch, and taking elective classes like art and music alongside his disabled and non-disabled peers,” WUNC noted.

The district, which enrolls more than 37,000 students in grades pre-K through 12, has been found at fault for individual violations against two other students with autism, according to WUNC.

Although the DPI recognized these previous investigations, it argued they “did not yield a pattern of noncompliance that rose to the level of a systemic complaint.”

However, Hagins disagreed with the department’s assessment.

“A systemic investigation would see if that is happening on a deeper level,” he said, “so that we don’t have to continue filing complaints for each individual child who has autism and is on a modified day placement.”

Many parents of special-needs children are turning to alternatives outside the public-school system nationwide, in light of multiple lawsuits alleging discrimination and harassment against their children.

In one example, a superintendent in Texas resigned after she and two teachers were arrested following allegations of abusing special education students.