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Kennedy Hunt P.C. recently filed a disability discrimination lawsuit against Cahokia School District #187 Board of Education in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, alleging that the public school district violated the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Illinois Human Rights Act. 

According to the lawsuit, the school district discriminated against our client, a minor child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and a Speech and Language Impairment, based on her disabilities. The lawsuit alleges that the school district discriminated against our client on multiple occasions, denied her reasonable accommodations, thus leading her to regress under the instruction of Elizabeth Morris Elementary School staff.

Our client began receiving specialized instruction, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech/language therapy starting in May 2021. The lawsuit alleges that in January 2025, parents learned, for the first time, that the District failed to provide their child with physical therapy during the 2021-2022 school year because of alleged “staffing shortages.”

The lawsuit alleges the school district did not offer or mention compensatory or remedial accommodations to help our client make up for the lack of physical therapy during the 2021-2022 school year.

According to the lawsuit, despite our client making progress noted by her teachers in her pre-K class, the district moved our client to a one-hundred-percent special education program because the other class with typically developing peers was “full.” Parents contacted the Board of Education to object, but according to the lawsuit, the district did not return their calls.

Our client began attending kindergarten at  Elizabeth Morris Elementary School in August 2023. Soon after, the lawsuit alleges parents started receiving calls from staff instructing them to pick up our client from school. Staff allegedly claimed our client had diarrhea and needed to stay home the following day. In Fall 2023, Parents consulted a physician, who confirmed our client was not experiencing diarrhea. As a result, they decided not to keep their child at home after the school called to report diarrhea.

The school allegedly then started calling the parents, claiming their child needed to be picked up due to a low-grade fever. Parents then started measuring their child’s temperature when they dropped her off at school. Her temperature was always 98.9 degrees. Unbeknownst to Parents, the District’s removals of their child from school were school suspensions. The lawsuit alleges our client missed over 30 school days because of these suspensions.

The lawsuit also claims that in fall 2023, the district terminated our client’s speech and language accommodations without notice to Parents. Allegedly, our client ceased receiving any speech and language accommodations due to staffing shortages, including a speech therapist who was on maternity leave at the time. Parents then placed our client in speech/language therapy at a local children’s hospital once a week. In February 2024, Parents distributed progress notes from our client’s therapists at the children’s hospital and requested that district staff work with their child’s therapists from Children’s. Parents signed consent forms, but do not believe any District 187 staff contacted our client’s therapists.

In another instance, according to the lawsuit: 

On March 14, 2024, District 187 contacted parents to request that our client be picked up early from school. Upon arrival, Parents discovered that District 187 staff had no idea where their child was. After an extended search, Parents found their child with her aunt, who was not listed on the approved sign-out list. District did not provide an explanation for how their child was dismissed early to an unapproved individual. This incident significantly undermined Parents’ confidence in District 187’s ability to keep their daughter safe.

The lawsuit states that in September 2024, the district moved our client to Menta Academy in Belleville, Illinois. The district informed Parents that this change was due to their complaints.

According to the lawsuit, in Fall 2024, Parents learned that Menta did not provide our client with speech and language accommodations until October 30, 2024. Our client’s communication skills have continued to regress to the extent that she never uses words, no longer imitates the sound of words, and uses gestures less frequently. Since the 2021-2022 school year, the lawsuit alleges District 187 failed to provide our client approximately 64 weeks of physical therapy accommodations, 56 weeks of occupational therapy accommodations, and 60 weeks of speech accommodations.

This case is ongoing. For more information, contact attorney Sarah Jane Hunt at sarahjane@kennedyhuntlaw.com. If you or someone you know has had their educational and/or disability rights violated, the skilled attorneys at Kennedy Hunt, P.C. may be able to help you. Fill out a questionnaire so we can understand your claim.