PROVIDENCE – Multilingual learner students who attend 360 High School and their parents have recently filed a federal lawsuit along with the Rhode Island Center for Justice asking the court to prevent city and state education officials from closing the school at the end of the academic year.
Back in February, according to multiple media reports, the Providence Public School District – overseen by the R.I. Department of Education – announced plans to close 360 High School in the city’s south side after almost a decade in operation and merge it with Juanita Sanchez High School. School officials said 360 High School has seen declining enrollment and low student performances, media reports said.
But according to
the 40-page lawsuit filed April 19 in U.S. District Court, the Rhode Island Center for Justice, 360 High School students and their families claim that closing the school violates the federal Equal Education Opportunity Act of 1974. They say the act requires school districts to make “affirmative efforts” to support equal educational opportunities and to remove barriers to language access for multilingual students and their families.
The lawsuit states that the decision by RIDE and PPSD to close the school “with no transition plan to protect students and their families from the immediate harm” they would experience by losing support within 360 High School “constitutes a new and continuing violation” of students’ and families’ rights under the federal law.
“The disestablishment of their school community prevents students from having an equal educational opportunity to progress as evidence shows that school closures immediately harm the educational outcomes of students displaced from the closed school,” the lawsuit states, “harm that continues both short and long term.”
R.I. Education Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green, RIDE, PPSD and the Providence School Board are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
PPSD spokesperson Jay Wegimont on Tuesday told Providence Business News via email that the district and RIDE acted in the best interest of students in deciding to close 360 High School and “are committed to expanding access to high-quality learning opportunities" for all students, including multilingual learners.” He also said RIDE and PPSD's legal counsel will respond accordingly to the lawsuit.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
