Special needs students sue for proper resources during pandemic
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The parents of 10-year-old Connor Rodriguez have joined a lawsuit against school districts across the country to compel them to provide more adequate resources during the pandemic. Photo courtesy of the Rodriguez family
By Harry Parker
Connor Rodriguez is known as a hugger.
His father, Fred Rodriguez, says he’s a “happy go-lucky” kid. Connor, 10, is always excited to see his teachers and be with his friends at school, but the threat of contracting COVID-19 has made him keep his distance.
“He says, ‘If I ever go back to school, I have to wear a mask all the time. I have to stay away. I can't hug anyone anymore,’” Fred Rodriguez said. “He won't cry, but you can see in his eyes — he gets very sad.”
Connor has Down Syndrome, and attends Tiegerman School, a special education school in Glen Cove, N.Y. As a Queens resident, he falls under the purview of the New York City Department of Education.
He requires regular treatment from speech, occupational and physical therapists provided by Tiegerman. When the coronavirus pandemic closed the school in March, his father took time off from work to stay with his son at their Rockaway Beach home.
The Rodriguezes are one of more than 500 families who have signed onto a recent lawsuit filed against school districts nationwide.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, by the Brain Injury Rights Group, claims that school districts have failed to honor their service agreements with special needs students, and in some cases have offered no services at all.
While Connor’s parents have been able to keep Connor up to speed with his school assignments, there is noticeable regression of Connor’s speech abilities and dramatic changes in his mood, they said.
Dawn Grosso, a resident of Staten Island, and mother of two special needs students, has also joined the lawsuit.
Grosso said she paid out of pocket for speech therapy and group socialization therapy in July after her daughter, Adrianna —who has a lower functioning form of Autism — showed serious signs of regression.
Rosana Mazzatto has a 6-year-old son with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, whose name she withheld for privacy reasons. Mazzatto also joined the lawsuit because she said her son developed depression during quarantine because he was unable to see his therapists face-to-face.
The founder of the Brain Injury Rights Group and the organizer of this lawsuit, Patrick Donohue, said school districts have violated certain federally mandated agreements with parents.
The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act guarantees that any change to a student’s lesson plan, known as an Individualized Education Programs, that lasts longer than 10 days must be a mutual decision between school districts and the child’s parents.
Donohue said school districts owe families financial damages for any extra years of education required to make up for the missed schooling, as well as additional therapy that’s needed to undo the regression. Compensation would also cover new problems that children may develop that require additional treatments, out of pocket for expenses and any time of work that parents took to care for their children.
“These school districts violated the rights of 6.7 million students across the country by altering their educational programs,” Patrick Donohue told the New York Post. “They put the burden on parents to do the job of these school districts.”
The New York City Department of Education has not responded to requests for comment.
