{"id":18304,"date":"2016-09-22T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2016-09-22T13:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=18304"},"modified":"2016-09-07T16:38:57","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T20:38:57","slug":"feds-sue-georgias-segregated-schools-for-kids-with-disabilities-are-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/feds-sue-georgias-segregated-schools-for-kids-with-disabilities-are-illegal\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds Sue: Georgia\u2019s Segregated Schools for Kids with Disabilities Are Illegal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Feds%20Sue%3A%20Georgia%E2%80%99s%20Segregated%20Schools%20for%20Kids%20with%20Disabilities%20Are%20Illegal\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>On August 23, 2016, the United States Department of Justice filed suit against the State of Georgia for discriminating against thousands of public school students with behavior and emotional disabilities by placing these students in a separate and unequal educational program.<\/p>\n<p>The <span style=\"color: #000080;\"><a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ada.gov\/olmstead\/\/documents\/gnets_complaint.html\">complain<span style=\"color: #000080;\">t<\/span><\/a><a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ada.gov\/olmstead\/\/documents\/gnets_complaint.html\">, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia<\/a><\/span>, alleges that Georgia\u2019s services for students with behavior-related disabilities<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>unnecessarily segregates students with disabilities in GNETS when they could appropriately be served with their peers in general education settings.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This program, known as the Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support Program (\u201cGNETS\u201d), has been financed, operated and administered by the State of Georgia since 1970.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"border: 1px solid #000000;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/images\/bs\/girl.sad.bars.jpg\" width=\"566\" height=\"383\" \/><strong>The lawsuit is the first challenge to a state-run school system for segregating students with disabilities.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Press Release:\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-sues-georgia-unnecessarily-segregating-students-disabilities\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"> https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-sues-georgia-unnecessarily-segregating-students-disabilities<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Federal Court Complaint:\u00a0\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #000080;\"><a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ada.gov\/olmstead\/\/documents\/gnets_complaint.html\">https:\/\/www.ada.gov\/olmstead\/\/documents\/gnets_complaint.html<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Background of Georgia Discrimination Case<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In 2011, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.splcenter.org\/news\/2015\/07\/24\/after-splc-complaint-doj-finds-georgia-program-violates-disabilities-act\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed a civil rights complaint<\/span><\/a> against GNETS for systemic unnecessary reliance on the segregated GNETS Program across the State of Georgia, as a result of the State\u2019s administration, operation, and funding of the GNETS Program, including the GNETS Program\u2019s admissions, services, and facilities.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.splcenter.org\/news\/2015\/07\/24\/after-splc-complaint-doj-finds-georgia-program-violates-disabilities-act\">https:\/\/www.splcenter.org\/news\/2015\/07\/24\/after-splc-complaint-doj-finds-georgia-program-violates-disabilities-act<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Four years after the SPLC complaint, the U.S. Department of Justice issued an &#8220;extensive findings letter&#8221; determined that Georgia discriminated against students with disabilities by segregating them from other students.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ada.gov\/olmstead\/documents\/gnets_lof.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Letter of Finding to Georgia Governor Deal and Attorney General Olens <\/span><\/a> (July 15, 2015) concluded that Georgia:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>violates the ADA and discriminates against children with disabilities by unnecessarily relying on, and creating incentives for school districts to choose, a segregated GNETS program to provide behavioral and mental health services, and by providing students in the GNETS Program opportunities to participate in services that are unequal to the services offered to students outside the GNETS Program.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ada.gov\/olmstead\/documents\/gnets_lof.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">https:\/\/www.ada.gov\/olmstead\/documents\/gnets_lof.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Department of Justice is involved in discrimination cases in other states, including Ohio, Mississippi, South Dakota, Oregon, West Virginia, Alabama, and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>You can read about these cases, investigations, and other ADA Olmstead Enforcement efforts here:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ada.gov\/olmstead\/\/olmstead_cases_list2.htm#gnets\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">https:\/\/www.ada.gov\/olmstead\/\/olmstead_cases_list2.htm<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On August 23, 2016, the United States Department of Justice filed suit against the State of Georgia for discriminating against thousands of public school students with behavior and emotional disabilities <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/feds-sue-georgias-segregated-schools-for-kids-with-disabilities-are-illegal\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,1370,48],"tags":[837,1306,1289,1429],"class_list":["post-18304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ada","category-discipline-behavior","category-discrimination","tag-behavior-and-discipline","tag-discrimination","tag-gnets","tag-southern-poverty-law-center"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18304"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18358,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18304\/revisions\/18358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}