The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Loyola Law Clinic reached a settlement agreement with Louisiana’s St. Bernard Parish Public Schools following a 2023 lawsuit the groups filed accusing the school district with routinely violating the rights of students with disabilities, placing them in a punitive alternative school setting without the appropriate due process, accommodations and education services to meet their needs.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, was brought on behalf of two students with multiple disabilities who languished in the district’s alternative school for years in violation of their due process and disability rights.
Federal and state laws require school districts to educate students with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate to meet their needs. However, St. Bernard Parish Public Schools have used punitive discipline practices that force students with disabilities into the alternative school where they remain indefinitely. That treatment amounts to a de facto expulsion, as defined by state law.
As part of the agreement reached on February 27, 2025, the St. Bernard Parish School Board must guarantee due process procedures to any student referred for expulsion to the alternative school; provide any student referred to an alternative school due to disciplinary referral with a definitive exit date; and comply with mandatory reporting requirements of the U.S. Department of Education Civil Rights Data Collection Program.
