The Delaware Department of Education settled a federal lawsuit alleging incarcerated students with disabilities weren’t provided required services.
The U.S. District Court approved a consent decree requiring Delaware’s Ed. Department to implement revised programs and ensure students receive special education services.
Delaware’s Community Legal Aid Society partnered with Terris, Pravlik & Millian on the lawsuit filed in May 2024 against DDOE’s Adult and Prison Education Resources Workgroup.
TPM attorney Todd Gluckman said the state made no meaningful headway after receiving reports of violations.
“The students will start receiving the education that they need, and this is particularly critical because people in jails and prisons have disabilities at a much greater rate than the general population,” Gluckman said. “And a lot of these students had not been receiving needed special education for years.”
DDOE’s Adult and Prison Education Resources Workgroup makes education resources and programs available to incarcerated people.
The Community Legal Aid Society alleged 18 to 22 year-old students haven’t received any meaningful special education services while incarcerated.
CLASI and TPM say they found several violations, including one student who studied in a 3-by-3 foot plexiglass box for an hour or less each school day.
CLASI’s Disability Rights Delaware project director Marissa Band said a high school diploma is the single most effective thing someone can receive to improve future life circumstances.
“So this case is really important because it takes these students who have a great need for the ability to graduate, for their futures, that really wasn't attainable without appropriate special education while they're incarcerated,” Band said. “And it provides that to them so they have that option.”
There will be several monitoring mechanisms in place to ensure DDOE implements changes, including an independent evaluator who will watch for noncompliance. Both parties collaborate on choosing the evaluator. If they can’t reach an agreement, the court will appoint someone to the position.
CLASI will receive reports from the evaluator and monitor progress.
The consent decree also requires APER to develop new policies that comply with state and federal law; extend special education eligibility to current and former students at Howard R. Young Correctional Institution and James T. Vaughn Correctional Center; increase instruction time to four hours per day for students with disabilities and increase teacher-led instruction.
Outside of this case, CLASI has three other active cases representing individual students that are still pending in the District Court.
