Disability Rights Texas (DRTx) and Susman Godfrey LLP on Monday announced that they are filing a lawsuit against Austin ISD, claiming that the district is failing thousands of students with disabilities.
The lawsuit claims that AISD has refused to address systemic issues impacting its evaluation system, including staff shortages and increasing backlogs of outstanding evaluations. They claim that over the past year, the system has resulted in the delayed initial evaluations of at least 800 students and the delayed re-evaluations of about 1,600 students. These delays would be in direct violation of timelines established by both federal and state laws.
“We have discovered that several thousand students at Austin ISD have delayed assessments,” said Dustin Rynders with DRTx. “You’ve got to bring up to speed those students who were left behind.”
DRTx provided an example with the case of J.R., a 4-year-old with autism and expressive language disorder. Although children usually start school around the age of 5, younger kids can receive public education if evaluated and found to have a disability. Because they say J.R. has not been evaluated by AISD, he is receiving no education services.
Read the full article on the KVUE website.