Success Academy is under fire again for its treatment of students with disabilities. Of course, Success Academy denies the charges.
This is what Chalkbeat reports:
Success Academy officials violated civil rights laws when changing students’ special education services according to a complaint filed Thursday, resulting in some students suddenly changing classrooms and losing months of required instruction.
The complaint, filed with the state’s education department, alleges a pattern of school officials unilaterally changing special education placements without holding meetings with parents, moving students to lower grade levels, and even ignoring hearing officers’ rulings. In some cases, students were removed from classrooms that integrate special and general education students and sent to classrooms that only serve students with disabilities.
Filed by the advocacy group Advocates for Children and a private law firm, the complaint says that Success Academy officials often force parents to fight the charter network in federal court to maintain the services that are listed on a student’s individual learning plan, also known as an IEP.
“Students with disabilities do not give up their civil rights when they enter a charter school,” Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children, wrote in a statement.
The city’s education department, also named in the complaint, is responsible for making sure students in charter schools receive the services laid out on their learning plans, and setting up meetings with parents to discuss any changes. But, according to the complaint, the education department “has no system to ensure that these schools comply” with those rules.
With 17,000 students, Success Academy is New York City’s largest charter operator and has previously been accused of denying services to students with disabilities, and even pushing them out of their schools. In 2015, at least one school was found to have a “got to go” list of students that school leaders wanted to see leave. More recently, the network filed a lawsuit claiming the opposite is true: Success officials said they often fight for services for students with disabilities, only for the requests to be denied or delayed by the city.
This is Leonie Haimson’s report on the same charges. You will want to open her comment to see the picture of Eva Moskowitz and her family making fun of their critics, holding a banner that says “Success Academy Threatened to Call 911 on 1st Graders”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I am with Gadfly on the Wall. I think that GRIT is just another ‘BUZZ” word being used to treat kids badly.
Maybe this lawsuit will finally bring the changes that are needed — specifically, oversight of charters, especially chain charters like Success, needs to be taken away from the SUNY Charter Institute and restored to the Board of Regents. The SUNY Charter Institute at this point allows anything and everything Success wants to do, whether in the best interests of children or not.
Today a Walter Williams’ article appeared in my local paper as an opinion piece. He claims that charter schools are meeting the needs of black students and uses Success Academy as the prime example. He extols their standardized test score results and compares them to the NYS scores for minority students. It is more of the same cherry picking of data that is typical of “reform.” I already sent a copy to the NPE Facebook page. It is titled, “Black Education: What Makes Sense.” It is the typical expose that deformers use to spread their falsehoods and misinformation. It is doubtful Williams will ever present all the concerns associated with the mistreatment of students and their questionable practices.https://www.creators.com/read/walter-williams
Walter Williams is a dyed in the wool far-right libertarian.
Evidence is irrelevant.
This is not a lawsuit, it is a “complaint” to the commissioner filed under t state education regulations – the underlying question is whether the commissioner has the authority to order charters to comply with regulations, or, does the law exempt them ….. if the commissioner asserts her authority Moskowitz will appeal into the courts – this could very well be a landmark decision – I blogged about the issues:
https://mets2006.wordpress.com/2018/12/02/do-the-success-academy-charter-schools-routinely-ignore-the-rights-of-students-with-disabilities-the-nys-commissioner-will-decide/
Thanks for the clarification.
Not a lawyer but if the Success Academy franchise receives federal funds, the complaint should be filed with a federal court or the USDE Office of Civil Rights…if that office is operational and not a captive of charter-loving DeVos. Federal laws are being violated, IDEA among others.
Didn’t DeVos destroy the Office of Civil Rights? I thought she did.
She installed a woman who opposes affirmative action and most civil rights enforcement as head of the Office for Civil Rights.
Thanks God New York and California got more support, I’m an Unknown person who is still working to see the justice system get involve and put pressure on those individuals who destroyed the future of my Son , he has ADD and I was treated like an slave , the reason ? No reason why the law sistem don’t make then paid for what they did to us ?
I’m not English Speaker guys , that is why !
I know several families who send their children to Success Academy. I do not make known my opposition, so I can glean some intel from them. One mother whose son started in kindergarten in August told me that she sensed that her son was scared at the beginning. Why should a kindergartner be afraid of school? He attends a Success Academy in a wealthier, white neighborhood in Manhattan. What goes on with that organization is really criminal. I must admit I experience schadenfreude when I read these kinds of posts.
The money is the problem and people should know that the only way to resolve the problem is start a peaceful way to stops those reformers in a peaceful way , send them them to court but United is the oy way , Martin Luther King way . That it !
I really can’t believe they’re changing students’ IEPs without consulting parents first. That is truly amateurish and, well, dumb.
I do not doubt that Evita and her minions are evil little trolls. But, like you, I also believe they are rank amateurs at education. This seems to be borne out by the notion that if you drop a child down a grade level or two, you are somehow complying with the standard required to educate that child. It’s as if you can erase learning disabilites through grit – so ignorant of the principles of teaching and learning.
At NPE Indy 2018, Derek Black commented during a panel on charters and vouchers that the further away kids get from regular public schools, the less we can protect them. Private and religious schools which accept vouchers, as well as charters in some states, are free to discriminate against children in a number of ways.
Does this surprise anyone ? Reform Crowd – you need to stop lying about what you do. It is not fair to these precious children and their small lives. Shame on you.
Finally! It’s about time!