Justice Department files suit against Georgia
ALBANY — The U.S. Department of Justice late last week made good on its promise and filed a lawsuit against the state of Georgia alleging that the state’s treatment and segregation of students with disabilities in the Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support (GNETS) program violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, alleges that Georgia’s administration of its mental health and therapeutic educational services for students with behavior-related disabilities unnecessarily segregates students with disabilities in GNETS when they could appropriately be served with their peers in general educational settings.
According to the DOJ, the community integration mandate of the ADA and the Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. L.C. require states to make services available to people with disabilities — including children with behavioral disabilities — in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.
“Seventeen years ago, the Supreme Court made clear that states must serve people with disabilities, including children with disabilities, in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Georgia has relegated thousands of students with behavior-related disabilities to separate, segregated and unequal settings and placed other students at serious risk of entering such settings, failing to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Justice Department seeks to make the promise of community integration a reality for all of the state’s students.
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