The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Rhode Island announced on Feb. 16 that they had filed a complaint to the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) against the Bristol Warren Regional School District regarding a 6-year-old student who was allegedly kept out of school for multiple months after being provided inadequate special education services.

The complaint alleges that the student, who has multiple, learning-related mental health diagnoses, including “ADHD, combined type and Adjustment Disorder with Mixed Disturbance of Emotions and Conduct” faced more than 20 disciplinary actions in a four-month span at Hugh Cole Elementary School — where he was placed despite a formal recommendation from Bradley Hospital that the student not be placed in a traditional classroom environment.

After an incident occurring on Dec. 19 where the student allegedly injured a “peer” in the classroom, the complaint claims that the child was “interrogated” by a school resource officer and school staff without his mother present, leading to a suspension from school that was never lifted, and that he has not returned to school since.

“While the child is finally awaiting a start date in a therapeutic educational program, he has been provided no education for the past two months,” a press release from the ACLU reads. “The district’s failure to follow special education laws with respect to his unlawful removal, the complaint claims, has resulted in a complete deprivation of educational services to which he is entitled.”

Responding to a request for comment, Superintendent Ana Riley issued the following statement:

“The district will offer any compensatory services for any time the child has missed, or any services the child has missed while we await an appropriate placement,” she said.

Riley said that any other comments on the complaint would have to wait until RIDE hearings on the issue begin, to which she said a date had not been set at this time.

Timeline of events
The complaint lays out a series of events which led to the climactic suspension on Dec. 19.

The student had been expelled from “multiple” pre-schools prior to his enrollment in an integrated pre-school program during the 2021-22 school year. His ADHD and behavioral issues were confirmed during a psychological assessment, which recommended he continue to be provided with an IEP, receive “[a]cademic instruction in small group or l:I setting”, and a “predictable behavior management system."

The complaint alleges that the district did not provide the student with a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA), or develop a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP). During the student’s subsequent time in the integrated preschool, he was removed from the classroom twice for “unsafe behaviors” and reprimanded on the bus twice for similar behavior, which included signs of violent tendencies.

During the spring of 2022, the student was admitted to Bradley Hospital, a psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents. On June 9, 2022, during a meeting attended by members of the school district, Bradley doctors and the student’s mother, the district recommended the student not return to school for the final two weeks of the year, and that he was eligible for a summer program to determine how best to proceed with his progress in school. He was then discharged from Bradley on June 10.

The complaint alleges that the district never followed up to provide those summer services, and despite the recommendation of Bradley that the student “would not be successful nor safe in [a] typical classroom environment,” he was placed in a traditional kindergarten classroom at Hugh Cole for the fall of 2022.

Throughout the next four months, the complaint alleges that the student was disciplined more than 20 times, including five total days of suspension where those suspicions were not properly classified, “calling some ‘removal from class’ and another, ‘spent afternoon with Admin.’”

According to the complaint, on Dec. 19 the student’s mother received a call from the school that her 6-year-old had been removed from class following an incident where a “peer” was injured. She said she didn’t provide consent for the district to question him without her presence, but alleges that when she showed up to the school 40 minutes following the call, she observed him leaving a conference room with school staff and a police officer, “one of whom relayed that he had ‘admitted’ the allegations against him.”

The complaint alleges he was suspended from school that day and has not been schooled since. The district allegedly sent a letter to Bradley around Jan. 12, 2023 stating that the student could not have his needs met in a public school, and then cancelled an IEP meeting for that month.

The student was then accepted into an educational program at Bradley in February, but was unable to attend in person due to a “mechanical issue” at the hospital, and it was agreed the student could not receive adequate services through the remote learning option, so he remains out of school to the present day.

The press release from the ACLU states that it seeks compensatory services for the student, and that the incidents constitute failures on the district’s part to provide services they are obligated to provide, and that they violated the federal Rehabilitation Act and Americans with Disabilities Act, in addition to a state law that restricts police interrogation of young children in elementary school.

It additionally requests Bristol Warren staff receive additional training in carrying out its special education requirements.

“This is one of the more egregious cases I have seen where a child clearly needed more supports,” said Christine Marinello, an attorney working on behalf of the ACLU, in the press release. “Although we understand it takes time to find an appropriate placement, months of exclusion without any education is inexcusable. We filed this case to get this student the compensatory education he deserves, but to also seek staff training to ensure adherence to disciplinary due process.”

Mother’s perspective
According to the child’s mother, interviewed on Monday, the disruptions and removals from school have had a domino effect in other areas of life. Since he has been out of school, she has been unable to secure child care, leading her to lose her job as she’s been forced to care for him as a single mother.

“I lost my job and then I maxed out my credit cards, which I’m starting to pay off,” she said. “It’s been financial turmoil because we rely on the education system as a form of child care, especially for single parents, to be able to provide and earn a living. So not only were my son’s rights terminated, but my flow of income was also halted as a result.”

She said that she attempted to communicate her son’s needs through the district more than a dozen times throughout his four months at Hugh Cole, but, “It was always just swept under the rug,” she said. “They didn’t care what I said.” She said at one point, police removed her from the building when she tried to contact Superintendent Ana Riley in person.

The mother said that her ultimate goal from working with the ACLU was to get her son back on a good educational track.

“Ideally, what I really want to happen is I just want my son to be able to have the same rights as everyone else has,” she said. “I just want him to have the same chance as other kids do because he is already behind where the typical kid is…He is the most caring and outgoing, fun-loving child. He is a ball of energy and he loves to make people smile and be happy.”

She said that if her child was provided the proper educational services as recommended by Bradley, the incident on Dec. 19 would not have happened.

“Every educator is not trained in a therapeutic setting,” she said. “If he was in the right therapeutic situation, it would have never escalated.”

Read the full complaint filed by the ACLU here.