Four Claim MN School District Discriminates Against English-Learning Students

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Four plaintiffs have put their names on a proposed class action against Independent School District #625 in Minnesota that claims the district discriminates against foreign-born students just beginning to learn English. The 70-page complaint claims the school district’s conduct violates proposed class members’ civil rights, the US Constitution, and Minnesota law. 

The lawsuit alleges the defendant has implemented policies that have forced English language learners and other immigrant students into “mainstream” classes where they receive insufficient and ineffective language instruction. One plaintiff, the case claims, was reading English at a second-grade level and was placed in mainstream eleventh-grade level courses. Such practices, the plaintiffs argue, have deprived them and proposed class members of “the ability to learn in a language they understand and, ultimately, the ability to become productive members of society.”

Also at issue in the lawsuit is the defendants’ policies as they relate to screening students for special education services and accommodations for disabilities. Despite its state and federal obligations, School District #625 has allegedly implemented procedures that “improperly consider students’ national origin” while determining eligibility for special education accommodations. These inadequate procedures, the case continues, unlawfully fail to accommodate students with disabilities by “refusing to evaluate them, refusing to reimburse parents for the cost of evaluations,” and “causing significant and unreasonable delay in providing” necessary adaptations for some foreign-born students.