Along with Advocates for Children, a non-profit organization, Davis Polk represents a class of all children with disabilities who have been excluded from public school in New York City without proper notice and due process. The suit alleges, among other things, that the New York Department of Education (DOE) regularly suspends, expels, transfers and otherwise excludes students with disabilities from its programs without providing them and their parents adequate notice as is legally required, thereby denying them the free appropriate public education to which they are entitled.

More specifically, the suit alleges that students with disabilities who are removed from DOE programs are chronically underserved because the DOE does not have the staff, materials, programs or expertise to meet such students’ individual needs. Among other accomplishments, Davis Polk has overseen expert inspections of more than 30 “suspension sites” in New York City and deposed Department of Education staff and administration about the suspension process and the Department’s ability to deliver a free and appropriate public education to students in suspension sites. The case is pending in federal court.

Davis Polk also submitted amicus briefs in connection with Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State, 814 N.Y.S.2d 1 (2006). The plaintiff in that case initiated the lawsuit in 1993 to compel New York State to ensure that all New York City school children receive a sound basic education, as guaranteed under the New York State Constitution.

In addition to these larger federal court litigations, our lawyers also regularly assist students with special needs in administrative hearings before the Board of Education so that the students can obtain special education placements.