Group files lawsuit for disabled students

Jacob, a former Issaquah student with severe disabilities, used to love it when other students visited his special-education classroom.

His mother said it helped him learn how to talk to other kids.

So when Jacob, who has been diagnosed with autism and mental retardation, went to live at the state-run Frances Haddon Morgan Center in Bremerton, his mother expected similar success. For years, school-aged Morgan Center residents had attended Bremerton public schools.

But this year the district decided it no longer has the classroom space to accommodate them. Recently, the district reached an agreement with the state Department of Social and Health Services, which runs the Morgan Center, to open a classroom on the institution grounds.

On Wednesday, Disability Rights Washington filed a lawsuit saying that taking these youths out of public school violates state and federal laws against discrimination.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of eight youths ranging in age from 14 to 20, names the school district, the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and DSHS as defendants, saying each played a role in the decision.

Advocates for people with disabilities see the move as part of a larger trend in Washington, where children living at another institution have also been moved out of their local public school.

"I think it's a giant step backward," 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 lawsuit also said the students have been moved repeatedly from one classroom to another and have not received the services they're supposed to.

The school district declined to answer questions, issuing a brief statement saying DSHS is responsible for the decision. The statement also said the district is closing the junior-high building that the disabled students now use. Sixth-graders who were also in that building have been moved to other Bremerton classrooms.

DSHS said the district forced theirhand, and that keeping the students in public school is their preference.

"We've had an ongoing contract with Bremerton for some time where we did pay rent for school classrooms," said Linda Rolfe, director of the state's Division of Developmental Disabilities. "They're saying they don't have any room available for us to rent."

The situation in Bremerton echoes that in the Shoreline School District, which pressed DSHS earlier this year to provide classroom space for a dozen youths living at the Fircrest School.

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 only a handful of youths. At the time of the Shoreline decision, there were 18 youths living at Fircrest; there are 11 youths living at the Morgan Center.

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.

That goes against decades of advocacy. 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. The federal government followed in 1974. Meanwhile, there has been a nationwide push toward deinstitutionalization. In general, the law says people with disabilities should live and learn in the least-restrictive settings that meet their needs.

The federal Office of Civil Rights has opened an investigation into the schooling of the Fircrest children. It's unclear when that will be completed.

Jacob, now 19, is among the students represented in the Morgan Center lawsuit.

His mother, Renée, remembers his experience in Issaquah, where nondisabled students would visit the special-education students, play games, take them on errands and, in Jacob's case, have fun taking apart and reassembling electronics.

Along the way, Jacob learned to model his everyday behavior after them, she said.

"They'd teach him the proper way to talk, the proper way to act, how to greet each other," she said. "If he's not around that, he doesn't do that." Renée, a registered nurse, asked that her last name not be used to protect her son's privacy.

The Bremerton School District plans to close the building by Nov. 30, which means the students will be moved. However, the lawsuit seeks a temporary injunction to prevent the move until the legal issues are resolved.

"These kids," Renée said, "they're just being shoved around like nobody wants them."

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