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Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Northern District of Georgia
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Justice Department sues Georgia for Unnecessarily Segregating Students with Disabilities
ATLANTA – The United States Attorney’s Office and the Justice Department announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the state of Georgia alleging that its treatment and segregation of students with disabilities in the Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support (GNETS) Program violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
“This complaint alleges that many children in the GNETS program are consigned to dilapidated buildings that were formerly used for black children during segregation, or to classrooms that are locked apart from mainstream classrooms, with substantially fewer opportunities of participating in extracurricular activities like music, art, and sports,” said U.S. Attorney John Horn. “The law mandates that all children, including those with behavior-related disabilities, must have equal opportunities for education, and several existing programs within our Georgia schools show that with appropriate support and services, these students can enjoy far greater integration with their peers.”
“Seventeen years ago, the Supreme Court made clear that states must serve people with disabilities, including children with disabilities, in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Georgia has relegated thousands of students with behavior-related disabilities to separate, segregated, and unequal settings, failing to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Justice Department seeks to make the promise of community integration a reality for all of the state’s students. Students with disabilities in Georgia are entitled to access the services and supports that they need in the most integrated setting appropriate, where they can interact with and learn alongside their non-disabled peers and access educational opportunities that are equal to those available to other students in general education classrooms.”
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Georgia, alleges that Georgia’s administration of its mental health and therapeutic educational services for students with behavior-related disabilities unnecessarily segregates students with disabilities in GNETS when they could appropriately be served with their peers in general education settings. The community integration mandate of the ADA and the Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. L.C. require states to make services available to people with disabilities – including children with behavioral disabilities – in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. The department’s complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief.
Approximately 4,600 students with disabilities are currently in GNETS. In July 2015, the department issued an extensive findings letter, notifying the state that it was violating the ADA by unnecessarily providing mental health and therapeutic educational services to students with behavior-related disabilities in segregated settings, denying them opportunities for meaningful interaction with their peers without disabilities. The department found that most students in GNETS spend their entire school day, including meals, exclusively with other students with disabilities. Specifically, more than two-thirds of GNETS students are assigned to attend school in regional GNETS centers that exclusively serve students with disabilities in buildings that are often located far from students’ homes. Other students are assigned to regional GNETS classrooms located within general school buildings, but often in separate wings or isolated sections of the buildings.
The lawsuit further alleges that as a result of the state’s unnecessary segregation, students in GNETS lack equal access to academic and extracurricular opportunities enjoyed by their peers outside the GNETS Program. Mental health and therapeutic educational services and supports are available in Georgia to a limited number of students with disabilities in integrated educational settings. The students who receive such services, many of whom have disabilities similar to GNETS students, are able to interact to the fullest extent possible with their non-disabled peers, participate in curriculum that corresponds to appropriate grade-level standards and partake in a wide range of extracurricular activities.
The ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by public entities, including state and local governments. The ADA requires public entities to ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided services in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division enforces the ADA, which authorizes the Attorney General to investigate allegations of discrimination based upon disability and to conduct compliance reviews regarding the programs and services offered by public entities. Visit www.ada.gov and www.justice.gov/crt to learn more about the ADA and other laws enforced by the Civil Rights Division. For more information on the Civil Rights Division’s Olmstead enforcement, please visit: www.ada.gov/olmstead/.
For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov(link sends e-mail) or (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.
Topic(s):
Civil Rights
Component(s):
Updated August 23, 2016
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, September 24, 2010
Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Georgia-based Multi Family Housing Developer Alleging Discrimination
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced that it filed a lawsuit today against Post Properties Inc., Post Apartment Homes L.P. and Post GP Holdings Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia for failing to provide accessible features required by the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act at multi-family housing developments in six states. The defendants’ principal place of business is in Atlanta.
Since March 13,1991, when the Fair Housing Act first required new multi family housing to contain accessible features, Post has designed, constructed and developed at least 50 multi family apartment complexes in Georgia, Texas, Florida, New York, North Carolina, Virginia and the District of Columbia, according to the complaint. Nineteen of these properties are in the Atlanta region. All together, the properties constitute more than 17,000 units. At least half of the units have elevators that serve every unit, requiring that each unit comply with the Fair Housing Act’s accessibility requirements. Post operates many of these properties as rentals.
The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin and disability. According to the complaint, Post designed and constructed many of the complexes without accessible routes leading into and through the apartment buildings. Many entranceways have steps and steep curb ramps making them inaccessible to a person using a wheelchair. In addition, certain housing units have narrow doors and hallways; kitchens and bathrooms that lack accessible clear floor space; and thermostats that are mounted too high to be accessible to a person using a wheelchair.
"Our federal laws guarantee that persons with mobility and other physical disabilities will have the same housing choices as persons without such disabilities," said Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division. "We will continue to pursue vigorously the principle that failing to design and construct multi-family housing with basic features of accessibility violates the law."
"Our office is committed to protecting the rights of citizens with disabilities and ensuring that they are fully integrated in our community, and have the housing choices that the law provides," said Sally Quillian Yates, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, who joins in bringing the lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring the defendants to modify the complexes to bring them into compliance with federal laws and prohibiting defendants from engaging in future discrimination. The lawsuit also seeks monetary damages to compensate victims and civil penalties to be paid to the government.
Fighting illegal housing discrimination is a top priority of the Justice Department. More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces is available at www.usdoj.gov/crt. Individuals who believe that they may have been victims of housing discrimination can call the Housing Discrimination Tip Line at 1-800-896-7743 ext. 91, or email the Justice Department at fairhousing@usdoj.gov(link sends e-mail).
The complaint is an allegation of unlawful conduct. The allegations must still be proven in federal court.
Component(s):
Press Release Number:
10-1074
Updated September 15, 2014