Suit: Keep school for disabled open
A GROUP of families has filed a lawsuit to keep the city from closing a charter middle school in Harlem that serves kids with disabilities, the Daily News has learned.
Seven parents allege the city is discriminating against disabled kids by shutting down Opportunity Charter School’s middle school. The city Education Department declined to renew the 13-year-old school’s authorization in March, citing poor academic performance.
Opportunity is one of the only charters in the city that enrolls a majority of kids with disabilities.
In their suit, filed Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court, the parents say the city’s decision will harm kids with disabilities.
“The city should keep Opportunity Charter School open so that other kids who are struggling in their schools will have a great opportunity just as my kids did,” said Bronx mother Layta Downs, whose two sons with learning disabilities are enrolled in seventh and eighth grades at Opportunity.
“My kids have benefited from an educational experience that they couldn’t find anywhere else,” added Downs, who works as a parent organizer at the school.City education officials decided not to renew the full charter authorization permitting Opportunity to operate grades six through 12, opting instead to allow the school’s high school grades to stay open. Kids enrolled in grades six through eight will be allowed to finish their current year before the school closes.
Education spokesman Michael Aciman said the school failed to match district averages for students with disabilities’ performance on state math and reading exams.
“Opportunity Charter School was given clear performance benchmarks . . . and the middle school grades did not meet or make progress toward any of them,” Aciman said.
But attorney Kevin Quinn, who represents the parents and school, said the city shouldn’t judge Opportunity on the basis of its comparison to other schools. “They’re setting up a special-education school to fail,” he said.