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Boston Globe
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Hundreds of former R.I. special needs students could be compensated for state cutting their education short
Advertisement It took another seven years for the damages for the affected students to be negotiated. Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up The tentative settlement was publicly disclosed for the first time by House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi on Tuesday night. While briefing reporters on the late-night agreement on a $14 billion state budget, he said the process had been delayed by a last-minute request by the Rhode Island Department of Education to include a nearly $2 million appropriation for the legal settlement. 'We literally worked until 15 minutes ago' to fill the unforeseen budget hole, Shekarchi said around 9:15 p.m. The House Finance Committee approved the budget proposal before midnight. The settlement, which still requires a judge's approval, has not yet been made public. RIDE Spokesperson Victor Morente said the students who will be eligible for compensation from the $1.86 million settlement are those who were 21 between Feb. 10, 2012 and July 1, 2019, did not get a regular high school diploma, and lost access to public school when they turned 21. Advertisement The number of former students in that group number roughly 300, according to Sonja Deyoe, the lawyer for the plaintiffs. Two plaintiffs, identified by their initials K.L. and K.S, represented the wider class in the suit. K.S., who was a 20-year-old student at Toll Gate High School in Warwick at the time the lawsuit was filed, was about to be cut off from high school despite having Asperger syndrome and ADHD. She was working toward a traditional high school diploma when she was told she would have to leave school on her 21st birthday, the lawsuit said. K.L. had been a student at Chariho High School and suffered from a genetic disorder and developmental delays that left her at the 'cognitive level of a toddler,' the lawsuit said. She was cut off from school when she turned 21. The suit noted a similar case in Hawaii resulted in courts ruling Hawaii had to provide education up to age 22. Deyoe said it was 'very difficult' to come to an agreement on damages, as the two sides debated whether all the individuals affected in the class were eligible for compensatory services. She said the $1.86 million could be used to reimburse students for GED classes, tutoring, assistive devices, or other services like speech therapy they may have sought to assist them in getting education in lieu of the extra year of public school. Advertisement She said she has spoken to one former student who is paraplegic and plans to use the funds to pay for a device that helps them communicate. Deyoe said cutting students off from high school at 21 had a serious impact. 'There are numerous people who we initially talked to who were very close to graduation, who, if they were given that additional period of time, would have been able to graduate,' Deyoe said. 'It's very sad.' Deyoe said the issue at hand in the case was the word 'inclusive' in the federal requirement that free public education be provided for those ages 3 to 21. The plaintiffs interpreted that to mean inclusive of the 21-year-olds, not ending on their 21st birthday. In its 2018 decision, the appeals court noted that some students without disabilities — such as those who went to prison in high school — had access to education up to age 22, but the special needs students were cut off at 21. Rhode Island now provides education to students with disabilities until age 22, Morente confirmed. Morna Murray, the executive director of Disability Rights Rhode Island, said while it's not ideal that students will be compensated a decade later, 'it's never too late' to right a wrong. She said for students who need it, staying in school an extra year can make a big difference in their futures. 'Having those extra years is golden, before they have to face the world,' Murray said. 'It's really significant.' Disability Rights Rhode Island was involved in the negotiations for damages. It is not yet clear when a judge will consider approving the settlement. After that, there will be an opportunity for affected students to seek reimbursement from the $1.86 million fund. Advertisement The pool of money will also be used to pay an administrator to manage the fund, Morente said, along with legal fees. Unspent funds would be returned to the state after 20 months. The Rhode Island House is slated to vote on the state budget on Tuesday. Steph Machado can be reached at
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
RIDE disability rights case settlement disrupts R.I. House final budget preparations
The Rhode Island Department of Education's Westminster Street entrance in Providence is shown. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current) The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) may soon have to pay $1.86 million to settle a class action lawsuit that claimed the state had failed to provide special education services for students with disabilities between the ages of 21 and 22. That news presented a last minute complication for the Rhode Island House Committee on Finance's fiscal 2026 state budget preparations Tuesday. 'We literally worked to, like, 15 minutes ago to do this budget,' House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi told reporters at a press briefing on the $14.33 billion spending plan that began after 9 p.m. Tuesday night. He cited a figure of nearly $2 million needed because of an adverse ruling against RIDE, but details were unavailable at the time. The case of K.L. v. Rhode Island Board of Education is close to a settlement, Victor Morente, a RIDE spokesperson, confirmed via email on Wednesday morning. He said officials were still drafting a 'tentative' agreement that is still subject to approval from Rhode Island District Court as well as the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education, RIDE's governing body. The settlement comes nearly seven years after a federal appeals court ruled that RIDE shortchanged students with disabilities in the 2010s. The class action suit began in 2014 with a single plaintiff: A Warwick parent filing on behalf of their daughter, a Rhode Island student on the autism spectrum who also had ADHD and severe anxiety. But the student, named K.L. in the lawsuit, aged out of state-sponsored educational accommodations at age 21, before she could finish her high school diploma — something she should have been eligible to receive until age 22 under federal disability laws, her attorneys argued. K.L. had an individualized education program (IEP), which tailors learning for students with disabilities and helps to address their needs. These support programs are the roadmaps to ensure local schools education agencies supply students with a free and 'appropriate' public education per mandates derived from the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Students 'who were over 21 and under 22 as of February 10, 2012, or turned 21 before July 1, 2019,' Morente wrote, would be eligible for relief under the draft settlement if they did not receive their high school diploma and aged out of support services under previous Rhode Island law. When the case came before the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, it ruled in favor of RIDE by determining that 'public education' under the federal law would not include adult learning for students with disabilities over age 21. The class members then took their case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston, which vacated the lower court's judgment. We literally worked to, like, 15 minutes ago to do this budget. – House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi during a press briefing Tuesday Senior Judge Kermit Victor Lipez wrote in the first circuit's October 2018 majority opinion that the lower court had relied on too 'narrow' a definition of public education. 'At present, if a 21-year-old student in Rhode Island does not complete high school for a non-disability related reason — say, because she was previously incarcerated — the state will provide her the services needed to attain a secondary-school level of academic proficiency and a route to obtain a high-school level degree,' Lipez wrote. 'However, if the same 21-year-old does not complete high school due to a qualifying disability, the state currently does not offer her ability-appropriate services to attain the same level of educational achievement.' That imbalance violated disability law, the First Circuit decided, and the court boomeranged the case back to the District of Rhode Island for the two parties to determine remedies for class members. Sonja Deyoe, the attorney representing class members since the suit's inception, wrote in an email Wednesday that the First Circuit ruling was pivotal for disability rights in Rhode Island. 'The law previously had limited that education until the age of 21,' Deyoe wrote. 'This was a major change for disabled individuals in Rhode Island.' The First Circuit's ruling predates current RIDE leadership, and in August 2019, then-new education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green issued a memo instructing how state education officials should comply with the ruling. 'It is now clear that if they have not already done so, school districts … must comply with the recent First Circuit decision and should make services available and give careful consideration to the cost of prospective compliance,' Infante-Green wrote, adding that it was still unclear 'how appropriate remedies will be provided to those eligible class members.' Deyoe echoed that sentiment, saying that determining damages under the lawsuit 'did span a very long time,' with both parties trying to avoid forcing a legal decision as to whether individual class members could receive relief for damages. 'Whether individualized compensatory education damages could be awarded to the individual class members was always disputed by the RI Department of Education,' Deyoe said. The settlement also needs to be approved by the members of the class, Deyoe said. The currently draft spares class members from having to undergo individual trials to determine compensational education benefits. 'We are very hopeful the settlement will be approved, but the class members always have the opportunity to object and the Court may approve the settlement only with certain changes,' Deyoe wrote. 'We cannot predict that yet…While all of this took a long time to achieve, we do believe this is a good resolution for the class members.' The funding source to resolve the settlement was not immediately available from RIDE or the House on Wednesday. But Shekarchi detailed in a statement over email that the sudden news had cost the House some time on Tuesday. 'After the budget is posted for consideration by the House Finance Committee 48 hours in advance, there are always a number of policy decisions, options and calculations that must be finalized,' wrote the Speaker. 'The notification of a $1.86 million additional expense on the morning of the budget adoption certainly complicated the final process.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Daily Mail
14-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Man attacks girl, 7, and her mother with a toy lightsaber outside their home
A man beat a woman and her seven-year-old daughter with a toy lightsaber, according to court records. Aidan White, 25, has been charged with felony counts of child abuse and second-degree assault for allegedly attacking Saundra Lunzmann, 37, and her child in the front yard of their home in Auburn. On the evening of April 28, Lunzmann was out on her front stoop when she observed White interacting with her kids, according to an arrest affidavit from the Nemaha County Sheriff's Office obtained by The Smoking Gun. Lunzmann's daughter, identified as K.L., eventually came running to her crying while holding her arm, according to the affidavit. When Lunzmann asked White if he hit the little girl, he flew off the handle, police said. 'I'm not in the mood, get back in your f***ing house,' White said, per the police report. Lunzmann ushered her kids into the house, but not before he charged at her with the lightsaber, hitting her in the right arm and shoulder area, according to the report. The girl was reportedly struck by White on her right ring finger. Police indicated that both Lunzmann and her daughter had signs of redness in the areas they said they were hit. Lunzmann and the witnesses also told police that White, who is on the autism spectrum, is prone to violent outbursts, once chasing a neighbor down the street with an axe. White returned to Lunzmann's front yard as police were still investigating and admitted to the assaults. He apologized to Lunzmann and her daughter. According to police, he knew what he did was 'unacceptable behavior' and was 'cordial with law enforcement.' White was arrested and is now being held in jail as he awaits his next court appearance, scheduled for June 3.
Daily Mail
14-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Dark five words man said before attacking girl, 7, and her mother with a lightsaber
A Nebraska man who police said beat a woman and her seven-year-old daughter with a toy lightsaber had a chilling message for them, according to court records. Aidan White, 25, has been charged with felony counts of child abuse and second-degree assault for allegedly attacking Saundra Lunzmann, 37, and her child in the front yard of their home in Auburn, a small town 60 miles south of Omaha. On the evening of April 28, Lunzmann was out on her front stoop when she observed White interacting with her kids, according to an arrest affidavit from the Nemaha County Sheriff's Office obtained by The Smoking Gun. Lunzmann's daughter, identified as K.L., eventually came running to her crying while holding her arm, according to the affidavit. When Lunzmann asked White if he hit the little girl, he flew off the handle, police said. 'I'm not in the mood, get back in your f***king house,' White said, per the police report. Lunzmann ushered her kids into the house, but not before the wanna-be Jedi charged at her with the lightsaber, hitting her in the right arm and shoulder area, according to the report. The girl was reportedly struck by White on her right ring finger. Police indicated that both Lunzmann and her daughter had signs of redness in the areas they said they were hit. Shortly after this, White retreated to his apartment, according to Lunzmann, who called police at around 8:36pm local time. Beyond the victims' testimony, two witnesses who live in an apartment across the street told police they saw White attack Lunzmann and her daughter with the lightsaber. Lunzmann and the witnesses also told police that White, who is on the autism spectrum, is prone to violent outbursts, once chasing a neighbor down the street with an axe. Incredibly, White returned to Lunzmann's front yard as police were still investigating and admitted to the assaults. He apologized to Lunzmann and her daughter. According to police, he knew what he did was 'unacceptable behavior' and was 'cordial with law enforcement.' White said he attacked them because he was angry about his rent being raised. It wasn't entirely clear why Lunzmann or her daughter would be at fault for his rent going up based on the police report. Deputy Matthew Kadavy, who was at the scene and authored the affidavit, was able to seize White's lightsaber with the help of White's father. It was described as a 'higher quality device' that was about three-and-a-half feet long and made of 'metal and thick plastic.' The lightsaber could 'cause significant pain and injury when used to strike an individual,' according to the affidavit. White was arrested and is now being held in jail as he awaits his next court appearance, scheduled for June 3.
