Case: H.P. v. Board of Education of the City of Chicago

This is a class action lawsuit challenging the Chicago Public Schools' (CPS) and Illinois State Board of Education's policies for providing special education services to children who do not speak English fluently. The case was filed on January 29, 2018 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The plaintiffs claimed that the school district systematically fail to provide CPS students with disabilities, whose parents are Limited English Proficient (“LEP”), with a free appropriate public education (“FAPE”) as required by federal law by failing to provide translations of documents or competent interpretation services for the LEP parents during the individualized education program (“IEP”) process. Specifically, in their first amended complaint (“FAC”), the plaintiffs alleged violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”), 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq.; Title VI of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 (“Title VI”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000d et seq.; the Equal Educational Opportunities Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1701 et seq.; and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 701 et seq. The case was eventually assigned to District Judge Sara L. Ellis and Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez.

In May of 2019, Judge Ellis partially granted a motion to dismiss by the defendants, finding that several of the individual plaintiffs' claims were moot. However, she allow the bulk of the lawsuit to move forward.

After nearly two years of settlement negotiations, the plaintiffs were able to reach private settlement agreements with both the City and State defendants and on June 15, 2022 Judge Ellis dismissed the lawsuit. By agreement of the parties, these dismissal were without prejudice, but would convert to dismissals with prejudice in 2025 without further action from the court. There has been no further action in the case