Four parents of autistic children sue Philadelphia School District is a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The story discusses how the families are filing suit to stop a policy in the district of moving children to different schools at the end of the 3rd and 5th grades:
Four parents have filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of their autistic children, alleging that the Philadelphia School District is illegally moving the children from school to school based solely on their disability.
At issue is the district’s Automatic Autism Transfer Policy, which mandates that students with autism move to another school at the end of third and fifth grades. Non-autistic students do not have to move.
Aside from the policy which forces autistic kids to change schools multiple times, I find this interesting from another perspective: the class-action lawsuit. In general, it is difficult to sue districts in class-actions. Instead, complaints typically are filed on a student-by-student basis.
True to their name, Disability Scoop has already posted on this story (Parents Cry Foul Over Special Education Transfers)
Autistic students will be having a difficult time in this type of situation. There are the ones badly affected by this incident. I agree that it would be very difficult for autistic students to catch up.
Automatic Autism Transfer Policy should be reviewed if it does not violate any federal rules, or if it does not lead to discrimination