The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit last week against Georgia, alleging that a state-run network of schools for students with behavioral and emotional disabilities unnecessarily segregates them from peers.
About 4,600 students attend the 24 schools that are a part of the Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support. Those students are officially enrolled in their home districts, but are assigned to the separate placements if their disabilities are considered severe.
The lawsuit said that for the vast majority of students, such segregation is unnecessary and a violation of federal law. An investigation the department conducted in 2015 found students were housed in shoddy facilities and often not given access to art, music, foreign-language, vocational, or other courses.
