News & Commentary

The ACLU of RI and Progreso Latino issued the following statements regarding yesterday’s unanimous vote by the Central Falls City Council to repeal the City’s unjust youth curfew ordinance: ACLU of RI: “The ACLU of RI applauds the Central Falls City Council for repealing this ineffective and counterproductive ordinance.  The evidence is clear that youth curfews don’t reduce crime, and may actually undermine public safety.  Furthermore, the ordinances make perfectly innocent activity – walking outside at night – illegal, and disproportionately affect youth of color.  We commend the Council for taking the evidence-based, principled approach here and finally repealing this ordinance.” Progreso Latino: “Progreso Latino would like to commend the Central Falls City Council for getting rid of the juvenile curfew that criminalized youth for being outside and further exposed them to possible police harassment.” In December 2018, the groups sent a letter to Central Falls Mayor, James Diossa, urging him to work with the City Council to repeal the City’s youth curfew law.  More information can be found here.

Settlement agreements have been filed in two cases brought last October by the ACLU of RI and RI Legal Services to protect the rights of special education students who were harmed by Providence’s three-week long school bus strike. Although some remedies have already been implemented by the Providence school district in response to the legal actions, the settlement agreements, filed with the R.I. Department of Education, establish additional enforceable school district educational and financial obligations to compensate the students and their families.

In a letter sent today to Bristol-Warren School District officials, five organizations that advocate for the rights of students and children criticized the district’s decision to immediately bring a police officer into the school to tackle disciplinary problems, instead of quickly expanding resources that have been depleted over the years to address the social service needs of students. The organizations that signed the letter are the R.I. Disability Law Center, R.I. Legal Services, Providence Student Union, Parent Support Network of R.I., and the ACLU of R.I.

UPDATE, 3/12/19: The Central Falls City Council voted unanimously to repeal the ordinance.

The Providence school bus strike may be over, but the legal actions taken by three civil rights organizations last week to protect the rights of special education students harmed by the strike are not. Instead, the groups are working to ensure that parents of those students receive proper notification of their right to get prompt reimbursement for any transportation costs they incurred in getting their children to school, as well as their children's right to compensatory education for the time they missed classes.

The ACLU of Rhode Island, along with two other civil rights organizations, has today taken three separate legal steps with the R.I. Department of Education (RIDE) on behalf of students with disabilities who are caught up in the ongoing Providence school bus strike. The complaints allege that the failure of the school district to honor its responsibility under the students’ Individual Education Plans (IEPs) to provide transportation to and from school violates federal and state laws protecting the students’ rights.

The ACLU of Rhode Island, R.I. Legal Services, and the R.I. Disability Law Center issued the following statement in response to the Providence School District’s reply to the organizations’ October 1 letter calling on the District to make alternative transportation arrangements available to special education students for the duration of the school bus strike:

Three organizations that support the rights of students with disabilities have sent a letter to Providence school superintendent Christopher Maher, emphasizing the school district’s legal obligation to provide transportation to special education students during the city-wide school bus strike. The school district has claimed it has been unable to find alternative transportation, but will reimburse parents for the costs they incur in getting their children to school themselves.

UPDATE: 8/10/18 Within a day after the ACLU's lawsuit was filed, the school provided the ACLU the requested documents that formed the basis for the complaint. As a result, the ACLU has dismissed the lawsuit.