A group of parents whose children attend a school for disabled students has filed a lawsuit against the Chicago school board, claiming the board moved illegally to close the school.
The lawsuit claims the board violated the state’s open-meetings law when it voted Jan. 25 in closed session to turn the high school into an elementary school serving mostly nondisabled students. A spokeswoman for the Chicago schools last week said the board often meets in closed session when discussing personnel or legal matters.
Parents have waged a bitter fight over the fate of the Jacqueline Vaughn Occupational High School.
City and state officials argued the school violated federal law because it did not integrate its students with nondisabled students. But many parents of Vaughn High students said they did not want the school’s program changed. (See Education Week, Oct. 5, 1994.)
