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Litigation

D.S. v. NYC Department of Education

D.S. v. NYC Department of Education

In 2005, AFC and Morrison & Foerster LLP filed a class action suit on behalf of a class of students who were illegally excluded from Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood.  Plaintiffs claimed that the school improperly placed them on shortened class schedules, placed them in an auditorium for a shortened day of non-credit bearing classes, or otherwise excluded them from school.  The three-year-long class action lawsuit claimed that the school not only denied them a proper education but actually fostered an environment that encouraged students to fail or drop out.

In November 2008, the DOE agreed as part of a class settlement, to offer an extensive program of free instruction, counseling, and vocational training to hundreds of current and former students of Boys and Girls High School.  The services offered through the settlement include career and vocational training at New York’s established trade schools in a variety of practical job skills, including computers and information technology, office administration, paralegal training, plumbing, hairdressing and locksmithing, as well as literacy training, re-enrollment in high school, guidance and tutoring, and in some cases, public or private GED preparation.  In addition, the DOE agreed to monitoring for a period of two years, to be extended by agreement or court order for one more year.  On April 15, 2011, Judge Weinstein approved the parties’ agreement to extend certain of the monitoring and injunctive relief provisions of the settlement.

Associated Documents:

First Amended Complaint [PDF], December 13, 2005

Stipulation of Settlement [PDF], August 27, 2008

Schedule A to the Stipulation of Settlement [PDF]

Preliminary Order [PDF], September 18, 2008

Complete Class Notice [PDF]

Order Certifying Class and Approving Settlement [PDF], November 25, 2008

Independent Monitor's Report for the First Semester of the 2008-09 School Year [PDF], May 11, 2009

Independent Monitor's Report for the Second Semester of the 2008-09 School Year [PDF], October 21, 2009

Independent Monitor's Report for the First Semester of the 2009-10 School Year [PDF], July 11, 2010

So Ordered Extension Stipulation [PDF], April 15, 2011