Parents in the nation’s capital are pledging to fight a plan by the school system to pull 170 children out of a special education program at a private school, and some lawyers are questioning whether the city’s move is legal.
A meeting last month drew 150 people after District of Columbia officials announced plans to sever ties with Accotink Academy in Springfield, Va. For 15 years, the school has been paid to work with Washington students.
School system officials said the quality of teaching was quite low. But lawyers representing special education students in a class action say shifting all the students at once violates federal law, which mandates that such decisions be made on a student-by-student basis.
