NC high-stakes exams violate civil rights

As of the school year 2001-2002, North Carolina requires an end-of-grade exam for grades three and higher. My daughter is diagnosed with several learning disabilities and has an IEP. There are several accommodations on her IEP, all except one of which are acceptable for the end of grade exam. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction explicitly prohibits one accommodation: having someone read the test aloud for the reading portion. I realize this sounds silly, but NC is overlooking the fact that reading is made up of decoding and comprehension. The test as it now stands measures only my child's decoding problems and not her comprehension. In other words, it tests her disability. No other accommodation exists to allow my child to show what she has learned and what she can comprehend, and the state will fail her at year's end.

I already know this violates IDEA, Section 504 (testing accommodations) and probably Title II and maybe due process. What I don't know is how to proceed - I'm sure there are other folks like me who need help fighting this. I've contacted the ACLU and am in the process of filing a complaint with the US Dept. of Education, Office for Civil Rights, which can cut funding for institutions in violation of law. Any other suggestions? I'd love to find a lawyer who would take our case pro bono or on contingency.

You can ask your state's department of education for a due process hearing to address this issue.

The cost to you is nothing if you represent yourself. It's not required for you to have an attorney, but it's certainly advised because this is a difficult area of law.

A case like that will take many hours worth of work, so I doubt you'll find anyone to do it pro bono, just as you probably can't find someone to put a roof on your house for free.

There is no difference between asking a lawyer to work for you for free and a roofer to work for you for free.

You probably won't have anyone take the case on contingency either for several reasons. The big reason, in these cases, is that compensatory education (more time/services for your child) plus other remedies frequently do not involve payments of cash as damages by the agency that violated the student's due process. So there's not some big pot of gold at the end that you're working toward. There are other reasons, too, but in the interests of brevity, I'll stop there.

Bottom line: If you think the state is in violation, call them on it. If you don't want to pay someone who has expertise in this area, do it yourself. Just know that there are a lot of potential pitfalls in that. The choice is yours.

Best of luck to you.