The monumental impact of a single case 12.18.23

For the past two and a half years, School Justice Project has been litigating the Charles H. v. District of Columbia class action alleging the denial of a free appropriate public education to students with special education needs who were incarcerated at the DC Jail during the COVID-19 pandemic. On September 22, 2023, the plaintiffs received excellent news that the case settled! Since that time, SJP has been hard at work beginning to implement the terms of the Settlement Agreement. After sharing the news of the agreement with the named plaintiffs, SJP began informing our other clients about the positive result reached. All of the young people are very excited to learn about the systemic reforms that will occur as well as the individual relief they are entitled to under the Settlement Agreement. 
 
As part of the Settlement Agreement, the District agreed to enlist the services of a Third-Party Auditor who will oversee the implementation of the systemic reforms. We have begun having productive conversations with the Auditor, who is already familiar with these issues from her work on other District cases. 
 
Most importantly, SJP has started contacting the nearly 200 class members to determine what relief they are interested in pursuing. Compensatory education class members were awarded a total of 3.4 million dollars in funding to be used towards educational expenses like tutoring, tuition, educational technology, mentoring, and workforce development. The individual awards vary based on the amount of time the young person was incarcerated and the special education services that they should have received during the period of deprivation. Many awards total tens of thousands of dollars, enough that these young people will have the opportunity to pay for college classes or trade school. They are even entitled to use the awards to help pay for fees and transportation costs, removing massive obstacles that often prevent these young people from continuing their education past high school.
 
SJP will be working with class members who want to begin using their awards immediately to ensure that the process runs smoothly and that they are able to fully take advantage of what has been awarded to them. SJP and our co-counsel are hopeful that the provisions outlined in the Settlement Agreement will lead to excellent educational outcomes for the class members and the students that come after them, leaving a lasting impact on the education of incarcerated students in the District for years to come. 
 
For more information, please visit: https://www.sjpdc.org/charles-h-case.