A settlement appears to have been reached with the Four Rivers Special Education District and the U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights investigation initiated last February.
The U.S. Department of Education initiated a civil rights investigation into Garrison School and the Four Rivers Special Education District on February 13, 2023 after a ProPublica/Chicago Tribune investigative report revealed the number of times the district had referred students to local law enforcement for disturbances at the school.
Federal investigators requested records from Four Rivers , including details of every student discipline incident for the past two school years at Garrison School. According to the ProPublica report, for each incident in which police were called, investigators asked for the reason police got involved, an accounting of how much classroom time was missed and how that time was made up, and records of any communication with parents.
According to the investigative report by both news organizations, no other school district in the United States had a higher student arrest rate than Four Rivers based on federal data.
In a resolution agreement with the Office of Civil Rights and signed by officials at Four Rivers on Tuesday and obtained via request by WLDS News, the district has to make the following remediation plans moving forward:
1. By December 20th, the district will convene Individual Education Program meetings for each student with disabilities who was subjected to law enforcement contact or missed any kind of instructional time dating back to the 2021-2022 school year. The district will have to submit finalized reports by the end of the year on each of the meetings, and by May 31, 2025 submit documentation pertaining to compensatory education and/or other remedial services delivered to those students who missed time.
2. The district will have to update its policies and procedures in regards to use of referring students to its crisis/regulation room and to law enforcement. After updating those policies, Four Rivers has to submit them to the Office of Civil Rights for its final review and approval. The policies will then have to be adopted by the district within 60 days.
3. The district must update its policies of documentation of incidents for student contact with law enforcement with new minimum requirements.
4. The district also must provide additional training to all members of the school’s faculty, staff, and administration on free appropriate public education as defined by the Office of Civil Rights, the use of de-escalation, the use of the crisis/regulation room, new incident documentation requirements, and the appropriate times when and when not to call law enforcement for intervention in student incidents of criminality.
Administration for Four Rivers Special Education District has not issued a comment on the agreement.