After spending four months without an appropriate school to attend, Equip for Equality’s client excitedly returned to his middle school on Monday after a federal judge ordered his return. Our client is a twelve-year-old boy with various disabilities that affect his learning in school. Over time, his school district has increasingly segregated him into separate classroom settings, without providing needed supports and services. Most recently, the school district sought to move him out of his neighborhood school entirely into a segregated school for students with behavioral disabilities. Equip for Equality’s complaint alleges that the school district’s actions violate the legal mandate to educate students in their least restrictive environment, which requires the starting point to be the neighborhood school with appropriate supports and services. Equip for Equality also alleges that the school district has violated federal law by failing to provide him with an appropriate education to meet his unique needs by not conducting appropriate evaluations, not developing appropriate education plans, and not implementing the plans once they were created. As a result of this most recent victory, our client will be allowed to remain in his neighborhood school until the dispute is resolved.  Read the judge’s order (PDF).