District named in lawsuit

Andrew Edwards

Laguna Beach schools are defendants in a recently filed lawsuit

seeking to preserve access to a Mission Viejo school dedicated to

educating children with disabilities.

A group of south Orange County parents filed a federal suit on

Nov. 12 in Santa Ana. The suit alleges three school districts,

including Laguna Beach Unified, have not complied with federal law

mandating schools actively work on behalf of special needs students

to place them in the best possible educational environment.

Esperanza School, part of the Saddleback Valley Unified School

District, has until recently exclusively served the needs of disabled

students from preschool to age 22. Capistrano Unified is also named

in the suit. All three districts send students to Esperanza.

This year, Saddleback Unified made the decision to cut back

elementary school classes at Esperanza. Dave Larsen, an attorney

representing all three districts, said multiple reasons were behind

the district’s decision.

“I think it’s a combination of factors, I think they would include

best possible educational environment, I think cost is a factor, I

think workload equity among staff is a factor,” he said.

Whether or not programs for elementary students were technically

canceled is a matter of contention. While the districts’ view is that

children were merely transferred to other campuses, parents filing

suit consider special education programs at other campuses not

equivalent to what Esperanza had offered.

“They transferred them, but for us, we considered it a closure,”

said Pam Nippel, a plaintiff whose daughter, Bailey, was transferred

to R.H. Dana, a Capistrano Unified school.

Mary Wuertz, special education director for Laguna Beach, said

Laguna officials were not very involved in the decision to roll back

enrollment at Esperanza.

Only one student from Laguna Beach attends Esperanza, Wuertz said,

adding the outcome of the lawsuit will not likely have a very

significant effect on Laguna schools.

Officials at Saddleback Unified and Capistrano Unified referred

telephone calls for comment to Larsen.

Three parents in addition to Nippel have filed as joint

plaintiffs, and supporters are organized as the group Parents for

Choices for Kids Without Voices. Parents hope a judge agrees with

their contention that only Esperanza’s facilities satisfy a federal

mandate that special education programs provide students with the

“least restrictive environment.”

Nippel said her child is no longer able to do many of the

activities she could do at Esperanza.

“It’s the independence level, she had the ability to run errands,

go to the bathroom by herself,” Nippel.

Other parents, who met with their attorneys outside the federal

courthouse in Santa Ana on Monday agreed, saying their children felt

more comfortable at Esperanza than on a general campus.

“[My son] said, ‘Mom, I love this school, it’s so calm,” said

Cindy Allen, mother of 15-year-old Esperanza student Matthew Starkey.

A lawyer representing Esperanza parents said the districts also

failed to meet federal mandates by not doing enough to inform parents

of special needs children that Esperanza was an available option in

addition to special education programs at general schools.

“The districts were not offering Esperanza school and had not been

for years,” said attorney Eric Jacobson.

Parents are also not pleased with the district’s scheduling of

adult English as a Second Language classes at Esperanza during

morning hours.

“Nobody knows who these adults are, what they’re doing,” said

parent Michael Allen.

School districts will likely make the case that children who are

placed in a general campus environment are less restricted than

students on a dedicated campus like Esperanza.

“The current trend in the law is to integrate people,” Larsen

said.

So far no trial date has been set, the case could be brought

before a judge as late as the end of January.