Somerville Mom Sues Over Early Pandemic Shift To Online Classes

SOMERVILLE, MA — A Somerville mom is among three parents of special needs students suing the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education over the abrupt shift to remote learning at the start of the pandemic.

The group, which includes parents from Brookline and Wellesley, is seeking class action status on behalf of families with children who have "individualized education plans," or IEPs, according to court documents first published by Universal Hub on Friday.

The parents allege the sudden closure of schools altered their children's IEPs, a document tailored to each student with a disability that outlines annual goals and short-term objectives, without proper consultation with families. They further claim school officials failed to ensure their children continued to get a proper education, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the 14th Amendment.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, names state and local school officials as defendants, including the Somerville Public Schools and Superintendent Mary Skipper. Skipper did not respond to a Patch request for comment Monday.

The lawsuit also alleges Gov. Charlie Baker and DESE Secretary Jeffrey Riley, along with superintendents in Somerville, Brookline and Wellesley, defrauded families who benefitted from federal special education funding by falsely claiming that school officials were complying with the federal special needs law during the pandemic.

Though the complaint does not go so far as to suggest a conspiracy between the parties, it argues that as the heads of large educational enterprises, they each made "false assurances" to the federal government indicating that Massachusetts was complying with the federal special education law.

A spokesperson for DESE wrote in an email that the agency cannot comment on pending litigation.

The parents ask that it be affirmed the special needs law was violated and are seeking a special master to allot federal education funding, determine whether the pandemic caused any learning regression in their children and to ensure their IEPs are followed. The complaint also asks for a year of compensatory education to address any potential setbacks.