AFC filed the class action lawsuit in 2003, alleging that, after parents of children with disabilities received favorable orders in special education administrative hearings, the New York City Department of Education (DOE) was failing to implement the ordered remedies. The parents also claimed that the DOE did not have a system of tracking and monitoring implementation of the orders. Until 2024, the law firm Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP was co-counsel with Advocates for Children, and since 2024, Morrison & Foerster has partnered as co-counsel with Advocates for Children in this class action.

In December 2007, AFC, on behalf of Lead Plaintiffs and the Class, entered into a settlement agreement with the DOE that provides injunctive and compensatory relief to class members. The Settlement was approved by the Honorable Richard J. Holwell at the Settlement Fairness Hearing held on April 10, 2008.

합의에 따라 DOE는 명령에 명시된 기간 내에 또는 시간이 지정되지 않은 경우 명령 날짜로부터 35일 이내에 모든 공정한 심의 명령을 이행해야 합니다. 즉각적인 조치가 필요한 주문은 영업일 기준 7일 이내에 이행되어야 합니다. 독립 감사관은 각 명령에 대한 교육청의 이행을 검토하고, 감사관이 교육청이 명령의 일부를 적시에 이행하지 않았다고 판단한 경우, 교육청은 명령을 적시에 이행하지 못했다는 사실을 학부모에게 서신으로 통보해야 합니다. 해당 통지는 명령 집행을 위한 모든 절차에서 증거로 사용될 수 있습니다. 그러나 교육청은 10년 넘게 합의 조건을 준수하지 않았고 학생들은 계속해서 구제 명령을 기다렸습니다.

In 2019, when the DOE did meet the requirements of the Stipulation, and rates of implementation of hearing orders remained low, we requested that the Court appoint a Special Master to investigate the DOE’s delays in implementation of hearing orders, whom the Court appointed in 2021. In March 2022, the Special Master, David Irwin from Thru Consulting, issued his findings on the failures within the DOE’s hearing order implementation systems; the following year, the Special Master issued recommendations on DOE actions necessary for timely implementation of hearing orders.

In July 2023, Judge Loretta A. Preska of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an order compelling the DOE to change its systems for complying with special education administrative orders. The order incorporates the changes to the DOE’s systems and internal structures that the Special Master recommended, and includes more than 41 required steps that the DOE must take with deadlines ranging from two months to a little over a year. Among other changes, the order requires the DOE to create a structure for parents to contact the DOE when their special education administrative hearing orders are not implemented, including a support hotline for order implementation; improve and build DOE technology systems for implementing hearing orders; and recruit and fund new staff to implement hearing orders. Since 2023, the Special Master has issued reports on the fulfillment of the July 2023 Order.