Disabled advocates sue state over plans to educate teens at Bremerton institution

A plan to move 11 special-education students out of Bremerton schools and into a classroom at a state institution violates state and federal laws against discrimination, according to a lawsuit filed today.

The lawsuit, filed by Disability Rights Washington on behalf of eight of the youths, names the Bremerton School District, the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and the state Department of Social and Health Services as defendants, saying each played a role in the decision and has a legal responsibility to provide the students' education in the least restrictive environment.

The students live at the Frances Haddon Morgan Center in Bremerton, an institution for people with disabilities. For years, youths living at the Morgan Center have attended Bremerton classrooms. In a letter, the school district said the students, ages 14 to 20, are being moved because they're closing the junior high building that houses their current classrooms.

"I think it's a giant step backwards," said David Carlson, associate director of legal advocacy for Disability Rights Washington. "It erases decades worth of work to get children with disabilities the education services they need to develop and flourish just like any other students in the public school system."

The situation in Bremerton echoes that in the Shoreline School District, which pressed DSHS earlier this year to provide classroom space for youths living at the Fircrest School, another institution for people with disabilities. Shoreline said that given the logistics and cost of educating students with special needs, they could no longer provide the classroom space. Last spring DSHS had little choice but to open a classroom at Fircrest.

Until the 1970s, many public schools did not offer services for youths with severe disabilities. In 1972, Washington was the first state to require public schools to educate special-needs students just like any other students. Initially, these students learned in separate classrooms, but over the years there has been a push to include them in the same classrooms as the rest of their peers. The law says people with disabilities should live and learn in the least restrictive settings that meet their needs.

Linda Rolfe, director of the state's Division of Developmental Disabilities, said teaching the students on the Morgan Center campus isn't the division's preference, but it was the only option available.

"We've had an ongoing contract with Bremerton for some time where we did pay rent for school classrooms," she said. "They're saying they don't have any room available for us to rent." The changes in both the Bremerton and Shoreline school districts are the result of a larger problem, Rolfe said. In the past year or so, there has been an increase in the number of young people living in the two state institutions, which for years had housed mostly adults.

Rolfe said the increase is caused by a lack of resources in the community. When parents raising children with severe disabilities have no other options, she acknowledged, they sometimes ask the state to admit their child to an institution.

The federal Office of Civil Rights has opened an investigation into the schooling of the Fircrest children to determine whether the move violates their rights.

The classroom at the Morgan Center is ready to go, according to DSHS. The school district plans to close the building in a matter of weeks. However, the lawsuit filed on behalf of the Morgan Center youths seeks a temporary injunction to prevent the move until the legal issues are resolved.

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com