A federal trial judge has allowed a novel lawsuit to move forward that calls for the Compton, Calif., district to incorporate practices to help students who have faced such traumas as violence, family disruption, incarceration, and poverty.
In court papers, the district said many of the plaintiffs’ claims rely on the students’ own misbehavior, “such as truancy and schoolyard fights, to demonstrate signs of their disability when these scenarios could be the result of nothing more than immaturity or poor judgment.”
It also has expressed concerns that the plaintiffs’ theory could result in the vast majority of the 22,000 students in the district being classified as having disabilities under federal law.
