The advocacy group Disability Rights Ohio (DRO) has filed a class action federal lawsuit against the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW) over its handling of its investigation into special education at the Warren County Education Service Center.
The legal dispute started in 2021 when DRO filed a complaint with ODEW on behalf of two students enrolled at the education service center. DRO alleged the center violated state law by not providing adequate special education to the students it served.
An investigation by the department (then known as the Ohio Department of Education) found numerous violations related to the Warren County Education Service Center's lack of non-academic and extra-curricular activities, and how it evaluated students with suspected disabilities.
As a result, the state ordered the service center to carry out a corrective action plan by providing compensatory education services to students enrolled at the center. However, the deadline to meet those standards was paused indefinitely by ODEW who, in early 2023, reconsidered its findings. Later, the Warren County center was granted an injunction that stopped the corrective action.
The Warren County Education Service Center maintains it has — and currently — provides adequate education to students who require disability services.
Still, DRO's recently filed federal lawsuit claims ODEW's decision not to enforce the corrective action plan violated its obligation to ensure students with disabilities receive an education that meets state standards. The suit also alleges the public was not properly notified about the Department of Education and Workforce's reconsideration process and parents of students who were awarded compensatory education were not informed they wouldn't be receiving it.
DRO's senior attorney Kristin Hildebrant says the delaying of action and reconsideration by ODEW has negatively affected a growing number of students with special needs in southwest Ohio.
"Kids who are going to that school who've been there, or who are recently going there, are not getting appropriate services and supports," Hildebrant told WVXU. "All of the students who were there at the time we did our investigation who didn't get appropriate services and were awarded make-up services for that are not getting them."
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Though local courts have allowed ODEW and Warren County Education Services to ditch the plan previously required by the state, DRO is seeking a different result in a higher court.
"We're asking a federal judge to say that, 'Yes, the Department of Education had jurisdiction to do what they did and when it was overturned, that was a violation of federal law,' " Hildebrant said.
ODEW told WVXU it does not comment on pending litigation, and the lead attorney representing the Department of Education and Workforce in the lawsuit did not respond to a request for comment.
The Warren County Educational Service Center also did not wish to comment.
"That is not my fight," the service center's superintendent Tom Isaacs told WVXU in an email earlier this week.
DRO and ODEW will meet with the judge handling the lawsuit Oct. 31 for a status conference to discuss the case and set future court dates.
