Black children wrongfully classified as special education students

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From The Philadelphia Inquirer

A lawsuit filed more than three years ago by several Lower Merion School District students and parents contending that some African American children were improperly classified as special education students or placed in “low-expectation” courses has been scheduled for trial.

The trial is to begin on Nov. 1, barring a settlement. Mediation efforts went on over much of last year but ended in December with no agreement.

The Lower Merion district, in a statement released Monday by spokesman Douglas Young, said it had “acknowledged . . . historical concerns surrounding minority achievement and supports.” So, “the district has aggressively sought to take a leadership role in the effort to address minority achievement in the areas of educational programming, hiring, community engagement, and staff development,” it said.

Continued litigation, the statement said, is not the way to achieve the plaintiffs’ — and the district’s — “goal of ensuring that every student is achieving.”

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