Pasco County Schools, DOJ reach agreement over alleged discrimination against students with disabilities
LAND O' LAKES, Fla. - The U.S. Department of Justice and Pasco County Schools have reached an agreement over discrimination allegations against students with disabilities.
The investigation dates back to the 2018-2019 school year and found that the district discriminated against students with disabilities by routinely relying on suspensions and referrals to law enforcement to respond to students' disability-related behaviors that could have been addressed through proper behavioral interventions and supports.
As part of the agreement, the district will have to make major changes when it comes to how they deal with behavioral issues with students who have disabilities.
"When people in schools are not trained the way that they need to be and there's not enough resources on a school site, they resort to calling the police," Autism Society of Florida President Stacey Hoaglund said.
According to the investigation's findings, at one point an elementary school principal suspended a kindergartener with an emotional behavioral disability four times for a total of seven days over approximately a two month period. The Department found no evidence that the District took any steps to help address the student’s behavioral concerns.
In another incident, a 6th grader with autism received three sequential incidents of exclusionary discipline in less than a month for disability-related behaviors. Even though the student had a behavior plan that enabled him to have breaks from work and the opportunity to use noise-cancelling headphones, school staff didn't follow it. As Hoaglund explains, behavioral issues for some students are an example of them trying to communicate their needs.
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"The best way to de-escalate is never to get to that, to provide the strategies in the front end so that the child doesn't get to that point of no return, if you will, because when anybody has gotten that heightened to where they're exhibiting these behaviors that apparently somebody thought was dangerous enough to call the police, it didn't just start a second ago," Hoaglund said.
The district responded to the agreement in a statement emailed to FOX 13:
"The Department of Justice (DOJ) opened an investigation in response to an allegation made in 2020 regarding data sharing with law enforcement that eventually shifted to allegations that the District discriminated against students with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The investigation period began in January 2021 and concluded in January 2023.
The DOJ focused on the District’s practices with respect to students with disabilities and student discipline, threat assessments, and referrals to law enforcement during the 2018-2019 through 2021-2022 school years. It is important to note that under the federal Individuals with Education Act (IDEA), the District has been identified as meeting requirements, with no significant discipline disproportionality for students with disabilities during the same period.
Though we do not agree that we engaged in any discriminatory behavior or practices, we believe in continuous improvement, and we fully cooperated during the investigation. In the spirit of cooperation, the District signed a settlement agreement with the DOJ and committed to changes in support of our continuous improvement efforts."
As part of the changes, the district will be required to hire an independent consultant to help improve how it supports students with disability-related behaviors. The district will also appoint a behavior support coordinator who will help provide students with disabilities with better behavior-related support and services in their classrooms.
They have until June 1st to come up with the plan which will be implemented before the start of the 2024-2025 school year.
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