Lawsuit alleges Knox County Schools wrongly disciplined disabled student

KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — A federal lawsuit against Knox County Board of Education and the Tennessee Department of Education claims that a disabled Knox County Schools student was wrongly disciplined, resulting in him missing nearly 300 instructional days worth of school since 2022.

According to the lawsuit, the case centers around the education of a 15-year-old boy who suffers from a reading fluency disability. As the case involved a minor, both the student and his father are only identified using John Doe pseudonyms.

The initial federal lawsuit, dated May 3, 2024, states that a complaint was first brought before the Tennessee Department of Education in April , however, the case was outsourced to an administrative law judge.

The lawsuit alleges that the complaint was brought in what should have been an expedited manner, however, the TDOE reportedly may have overlooked the expedited due process hearing request. The judge ultimately did not expedite the hearing, although she offered to “move up the pre-trial hearing conference” before the case was dismissed, sua sponte, on grounds that Knox County Schools had not raised, the lawsuit said.

The May 3 lawsuit claims the student was placed in an alternative school on multiple occasions totaling nearly 300 days either without proper hearings being held or with hearings being held that did not include proper considerations.

During the times when the student was placed in an alternative school, the lawsuit claims he was removed from his regular bus and placed on a special education shuttle, taken out of a school where around 10% of the students have disabilities, and bussed across the county to a school where nearly half the students have disabilities. Additionally, the lawsuit claims the boy’s services were cut from 400 minutes of special instruction per week to 200 minutes of special instruction per week.

An amended complaint filed on May 15 included the expedited due process complaint to the TDOE which lists more specific details of the disciplinary actions. The complaint alleges that KCS used “administrative placements” to avoid conducting “manifestation determination reviews” (MDR), and on eight occasions removed the student without an MDR. The most recent occasion placed the student in an alternative school for 60 days, but before that, there were seven shorter administrative removals where the student “received no instruction” the complaint states.

It adds that on five occasions when KCS did perform MDRs, the question of if the student’s behavior was related to his “reading fluency” instead of his “disability.” The complaint later adds that the student also has behavioral and emotional deficits recognized by his IEP. This resulted in the student being sent to an alternative school for 332 days, according to the complaint.

In any of the occasions, the lawsuit claims that for any removal of more than 10 days, the student’s IEP team should have conducted an MDR of the student’s conduct to comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Act’s disciplinary guidelines.

Some of the disability impacts summarized by the IEP include struggling to get to class on time, taking an extended amount of time to get started on assignments, deficits with work quality and quantity, staying on task without supervision and respecting peers and adults. The complaint states that over the last few years, the students has received:

• 35 write-ups and 10 days of suspension in sixth grade
• 37 write-ups and 55 days of remand to alternative school in seventh grade
• 33 write-ups and 195 days of remand plus nine days of suspension in the eighth grade
• 43 write-ups, 114 days of remand to alternative school and 10 days of suspension in 9th grade.

Some of the causes for disciplinary actions involved in the lawsuit include using profanity, disruption, fighting, non-compliance with staff, cutting class, and horseplay. On one occasion, the complaint claims the student was given a 180-day suspension in August 2022 for making a “ Class 1 Threat ” which KCS’s code of conduct says is publishable by only up to 10 days of suspension.

The lawsuit is seeking declaratory relief that KCS violated the IDEA by failing to hold manifestation determination reviews by applying too narrow of a legal standard or reaching an incorrect decision on manifestation reviews that were conducted, as well as injunctive relief to:

• Stop KCS from bypassing IDEA rules on “administrative placement grounds”
• An independent evaluation to determine the full scope of the student’s disabilities
• Give the student compensatory education for the education time he was denied
• Training for KCS school psychologists, IEP facilitators, and Special Education Directors
• expungement of the student’s suspensions
• KCS to audit disciplinary removals for “felony behavior” or any other form of court involvement, involving identifying special education or Section 504-eiligble students who were “administratively” placed in a disciplinary alternative school and offer them appropriate compensatory education.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WATE 6 On Your Side.