New York ex rel. Schneiderman v. Utica City School District

177 F. Supp. 3d 739, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51289, 2016 WL 1555399
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. New York
DecidedApril 18, 2016
Docket6:15-CV-1364
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 177 F. Supp. 3d 739 (New York ex rel. Schneiderman v. Utica City School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
New York ex rel. Schneiderman v. Utica City School District, 177 F. Supp. 3d 739, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51289, 2016 WL 1555399 (N.D.N.Y. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM-DECISION and ORDER

DAVID N. HURD, United States District Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

On November 17, 2015, plaintiff Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York (“OAG”) filed this action against defendants Utica City School District' (the “District”), the District’s Board of Education (the “Board”), and Bruce J. Karam in his official capacity as District Superintendent (“Superintendent Karam”) (collectively “defendants”).

The OAG’s operative complaint alleges defendants have deliberately denied immigrant students aged 17-20 the opportunity to enroll at Thomas R. Proctor High School if they have, or are perceived to have, a limited ability to speak English. According to the complaint, District officials have instead systematically diverted these so-called Affected Immigrant Students into alternative education programs that do not, and cannot, result in the kind of high school diploma conferred on graduates of Proctor High School, the District’s only high school.

The OAG brings claims pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violations of the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment as- well as claims under the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 (“EEOA”) and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”). The complaint also enumerates pendent state law ■ claims pursuant to New York Education Law §§ 3201-3202(1) and the New York State Constitution’s Due Process Clause.

Defendants have moved to dismiss the OAG’s complaint in its entirety. The motion has been fully briefed and oral argument was heard on March 30, 2016 in Utica, New York. Decision was reserved.

II. BACKGROUND1

The New York State Constitution promises all students the opportunity to receive a free education from the State’s public school system. Compl. 1119 (citing N.Y. CONST, art. XI, § 1). The broad sweep of this simple assurance is reflected in New York’s education law, which entitles any person over 5 and under 21 years of age who has not yet received a high school diploma to attend the public school located in their district for free, even if that person has already obtained a high school equivalency or general educational development diploma elsewhere. Id. (citing N.Y. Eduo. Law § 3202). State education law also explicitly prohibits public school officials from refusing admission to an otherwise eligible student on account of race, creed, color, national origin, or gender. Id. (citing N.Y. EdüC. Law §§ 3201, 3201-A).

Of course, these basic guarantees apply with equal force to students who are, or are perceived to be, limited in the ability to speak English-. Compl. ¶ 23. These limited English proficient (“LEP”) students, often the children of immigrants, are enti-[744]*744tied to equal access to all programs, extracurricular activities, and other services offered by the local public school, including English language instruction and grade- and age-level instruction in core curriculum subjects, such as math, science, and social studies. Id.

In fact, New York law specifically requires that suspected LEP students be identified and assessed using certain state-approved proficiency exams to determine whether, and to what extent, they require additional language support services from the school district. Compl. ¶ 23. And related provisions of the State’s education law even prohibit school officials “from inquiring about citizenship or immigration status of students or their parents or guardians, as well as requesting information which would tend to reveal immigration status, such as Social Security’numbers, visa documentation, or 1-94 forms” during the enrollment process. Id. ¶25.

Simply put, these provisions of New York law work to ensure that immigrant students, LEP or otherwise, are entitled to an opportunity to achieve “the. same educational goals and meet the same standards as the general student population.” Compl. ¶ 23.

Notably, state law does permit school districts to create “alternative programs” for students determined to be LEP. Compl. ¶26. But these "programs must provide equal access to the educational and recreational opportunities offered to non-LEP students within the district. Id. Even more importantly, these alternative programs must only operate as “a bridge to general education classrooms”; that is, “they must function as a pipeline to integrated educational services provided by the school district, rather than as an educational dead-end.” Id. ¶ 28.

According to the OAG, the equal education mandates set forth above have not been achieved in Utica’s school district, where twenty-five percent of the City’s 60,000 residents speak a language other than English at home. Compl. ¶2. Indeed, data from the most recent Census reveals that the Utica CSD serves “one of the largest proportions of [LEP] households in New York, with one in ten households having no member over the age of 14 who speaks English ‘very well.’ ” Id.

The policy and practice at issue in this case began in 2007, when senior District personnel, including Superintendent Kar-am, approved the “Newcomer Program,” a mandatory “English as a second language” (“ESL”) program for immigrant students aged 17-20. Compl. ¶ 30. That spring, District officials began systematically diverting any immigrant student aged 17-20 who sought to enroll at Proctor High School into this Newcomer Program, regardless of whether or not the student expressed a wish to attend “regular” high school. Id.

At the same time, District personnel “refrain[ed] from entering information” into the District’s student databases about immigrant students who attempted to enroll. Compl. ¶ 31. Among other things, this “no-records” companion practice permitted the District to avoid conducting the English language proficiency testing on these students that would otherwise be required by state law.2 Id

The OAG alleges that this Newcomer Program was not designed as a temporary measure to eventually acclimate Affected Immigrant Students into integrated class[745]*745rooms at Proctor High School; rather, the District implemented it as a permanent program into which these students would be funneled. Compl. ¶ 80.

Equally troublesome, the OAG claims that the Newcomer Program did not offer these Affected Immigrant Students anything approaching an education on equal terms with the non-immigrant and non-LEP students enrolled at Proctor High School — instruction in math, science, and social studies was not even originally offered through the program, and students received little more than basic instruction in the English language.3 Compl. ¶76.

This unwritten policy of diverting LEP immigrants into the Newcomer Program without recording their attempts to enroll at Proctor High School continued in one form or another until the fall of 2014, when the Oneida-Herkimer-Madison Board of Cooperative Educational Services began offering a more comprehensive high school equivalency program named “APPLE,” or “Alignment of Pathways and Programs for Learners of English.” Compl. ¶ 56.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
177 F. Supp. 3d 739, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51289, 2016 WL 1555399, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-york-ex-rel-schneiderman-v-utica-city-school-district-nynd-2016.