The Washington Informer: Parents Sue OSSE for Adequate Transportation
Sam P.K. Collins of The Washington Informer highlights the stories of DC parents and guardians who filed a class action lawsuit against the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE):
“Being in special education, these students require time to adjust to school,” said Kathy Zeisel, director of special legal projects at the Children’s Law Center and one of the attorneys who filed the federal class-action lawsuit. “They arrive an hour or so late, and it takes the school additional time — an hour and sometimes up to four — to get them back on track into their routine. They might not make any progress because they’re getting such an inconsistent education.”
Over the last few months, Zeisel, along with Kaitlin Banner, deputy legal director at Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, often spoke with parents and guardians of students with disabilities who expressed their concerns about OSSE’s beleaguered transportation system.
The five parents who eventually filed the suit did so out of an obligation to effect long-term change, Zeisel said.
Photo: The Washington Informer
The District is Failing to Provide Transportation for Students with Disabilities
Parents and guardians of children with disabilities living in the District of Columbia, along with The Arc of the United States, filed a class action lawsuit on March 7, 2024 against DC’s Office of the State Superintendent for Education for failing to provide safe, reliable and effective transportation to and from schools for children with disabilities, thereby denying students equal access to their education and unnecessarily segregating them from their peers.