For Immediate Release: February 22, 1999

For More Information Contact: TLPJ, 202-797-8600

Class Action Lawsuit Charges that School Assessment Tests Discriminate Against Learning Disabled Students in Oregon Schools

The Advocates for Special Kids (ASK), comprised of parents of children with learning disabilities, filed a federal class action lawsuit today against the Oregon State Board of Education and the Portland Public School Board charging that Oregon's new Certificate of Initial Mastery ("CIM") testing system is discriminatory and violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The lawsuit is apparently the first of its kind in the nation and charges that the school officials did not take into account the needs of children with learning disabilities when it devised the tests, and it is now implementing a testing system that will destroy educational attainments and self esteem, violate federal and state rights, and damage academic opportunities.

The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Portland on behalf of parents and their children by Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) and Trial Lawyers for Public Justice (TLPJ). It is estimated that tens of thousands of children with learning disabilities will be affected by the new testing system. Implemented for the first time during the 1998-1999 school year, the new system requires all tenth graders in Oregon's public schools to pass a series of tests to achieve a "Certificate of Initial Mastery." A student who fails any of the tests may be required to repeat tenth grade or attend summer school, may be shut out of the school's honors programs, may not graduate from high school, may be denied admission to Oregon's state colleges, and may be disadvantaged in seeking employment.

The lawsuit charges that children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia and other neurological defects will be unfairly affected because the tests directly test their disabilities rather than their abilities.

Said Jeffrey Foote of Portland, Oregon, who is TLPJ's local cooperating counsel, "This is an outrage. The requirement that some tests be handwritten unfairly discriminates against children who may excel in ideas, organization, and fluency, but whose learning disabilities impair their ability to express thoughts on paper or impair the act of writing itself. The writing test, which emphasizes spelling and punctuation, will be virtually impossible for a dyslexic child to pass. This is unfair and illegal."

Under federal law, schools are required to provide reasonable accommodations to children with learning disabilities on the CIM tests to minimize the effect of the disabilities. The lawsuit charges that the school boards have flagrantly violated that legal obligation. The suit further contends that the state and local boards have created chaos and confusion among parents, children and educators by providing ambiguous and directly conflicting information regarding how the tests are to be administered to children with disabilities.

"In its rush to administer CIM tests, the Board of Education has completely ignored the rights and needs of children with learning disabilities," said Sid Wolinsky, a DRA attorney representing the children. "No one in the Oregon schools or Department of Education knows the policies and procedures for providing reasonable accommodations. Up to the very day the CIM writing test was administered, high ranking bureaucrats in the Department of Education provided parents with directly contradictory information. As a result, parents were not able to make informed choices about how their children should approach the tests." The parents are seeking to ensure that their children are provided with necessary test accommodations and that the schools develop and implement a coherent and understandable policy that does not discriminate against students with learning disabilities.

Disability Rights Advocates is a non-profit public interest law firm in Oakland, California which advocates for people with disabilities to facilitate their full and equal participation in all aspects of community life. Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the nation's only public interest law firm dedicated to using trial lawyers' skills and resources for the public good.