Last September NJ Education Report chronicled the story of Sania Anderson, a junior at Kingsway Regional High School, who, after a three-second fight, was placed on an out-of-school suspension that has lasted for fifteen months.  Her mother, Naimah Howard, who pursued all possible remedies, finally won the decision she and her daughter had been waiting for: On June 14th, New Jersey Acting Commissioner of Education Kevin Dehmer issued a ruling that Kingsway Regional has inflicted “irreparable harm” on Sania and must let her back in school.

An earlier decision by an Administrative Law Judge quoted by Dehmer found that the Board’s condition that Sania first undergo a special education evaluation was “questionable”  and “magnified by the Board’s prior non-compliance  with the administrative requirements regarding long term-suspensions.” The ALJ also found  that the Board’s submissions consisted of “conclusory determinations, thinly presented.”

Dehmer scolds the Kingsway Board Board of Education for not availing itself of  standard due process to reach an agreement on a Child Study Team evaluation. (An evaluation had already found that Sania posed no risk to herself or others.)  “There is no indication in the record that it has availed itself of that option,” writes Dehmer, “ instead apparently choosing to use the disciplinary proceedings to attempt to obtain petitioner’s  consent. Those efforts have clearly failed, given the passage of 15 months since the original  suspension.”

Naimah Howard is a dual-certified special education teacher who believes Kingsway is trying to shoe-horn her daughter, a top student with no history of behavioral problems, into a special education classification that is disproportionately designated for Black female students. Last summer the New Jersey Department of Education issued a “comprehensive guidance document on preventing discrimination in school discipline” because districts are “inappropriately putting children into special education programs [which] causes short-term and long-term harm, specifically for students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, and students of color from low-income backgrounds. Students misidentified as having disabilities and placed in special education are denied opportunities and rigorous curriculum that is crucial to their academic success. Additionally, even when appropriately identified, students of color, once placed in special education programs, are disproportionately secluded and harshly punished. The effects of these actions on children of color are widespread and damaging.”

Kingsway Regional Superintendent James Lavender was unavailable for comment.

Photo courtesy of Naimah Howard.