Berkeley school district sued over special-needs services

The federal lawsuit, which seeks class-action status for current and future students, claims district officials failed to identify, evaluate and provide services to students with learning disabilities, including dyslexia, so the students could keep up with their peers.

Larisa Cummings, staff attorney for the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, said in a statement that while she had received several complaints from Berkeley parents about services for children with reading disorders, the problem existed in many other districts as well.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, cites the experiences of four students who are the lead plaintiffs in the case, including a fourth-grader who reads at a grade level years behind his peers, but purportedly had to wait more than a year before the district evaluated and identified the student as needing special services.

“I’ve seen too many families in the BUSD have to resort to extreme measures, including homeschooling, just so their children with reading disorders are spared the shame and emotional trauma of not learning to read alongside their peers,” said Deborah Jacobson of Jacobson Education Law Inc., one of the attorneys who filed suit.