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# U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Announces Resolution of Disability Harassment Investigation of Allegheny Valley School District in Pennsylvania

# U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Announces Resolution of Disability Harassment Investigation of Allegheny Valley School District in Pennsylvania

September 21, 2023

**Contact:  **press@ed.gov

                                    -        
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil  Rights (OCR) resolved today a disability harassment investigation of the  Allegheny Valley School District in Pennsylvania.

OCR determined that the district subjected a student with  a disability to harassment so pervasive that it constituted a hostile  environment and that the district failed to take necessary steps to protect the  student, end the harassment, and assess whether the harassment impeded the  student’s ability to access the district’s educational program, in violation of  Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504), Title II of the  Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Title II), and their implementing  regulations.

Over a period of six months, classmates repeatedly  directed disability slurs at the student and both physically attacked the  student and threatened to attack him in a manner directly related to his  disability, all of which the student’s parent, and school staff, reported to a  district principal. One of the attacks was captured on school security camera  video and still the principal did not treat it as disability-based harassment.

OCR’s investigation revealed that the district did not  investigate all incidents reported, and where the district investigated, its  investigations were so limited that they, for example, disregarded an  eyewitness report and did not seek information from relevant witnesses.  Further, OCR’s investigation revealed that the district treated each report of  harassment as an isolated incident, instead of an accumulation of evidence that  the student was experiencing persistent disability-related harassment.

Although OCR’s investigation revealed that the student’s  parent reported that the harassing behavior was impacting the student’s ability  to access the district’s educational program, and requested modifications to  the student’s individualized education plan (IEP) to provide the student with  more support, the district failed to convene a formal IEP meeting, pursuant to  the requirements of Section 504, for more than six months after the student’s  parent first reported the harassment.

And even when the district convened the student’s IEP  team six months later, there is no evidence that the IEP team considered  whether the harassment resulted in a denial of a free appropriate public  education (FAPE) for the student, and whether adjustments to the student’s IEP  were necessary.

“No student should endure the disability-based hostile  environment that the student in this investigation suffered, and our federal  civil rights laws promise that schools will take necessary steps to protect  students from these harms,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine  E. Lhamon. “Allegheny Valley School District has now committed to important  corrective action so no student in its charge will live through the harm the  student in this investigation suffered, and instead every student may expect to  experience the nondiscriminatory learning environment that federal law  guarantees.”

The resolution agreement commits the district to take  steps to ensure nondiscrimination based on disability in all of its education  programs and activities, including:
- The distribution of a       memorandum to all district staff affirming the district’s obligations       pursuant to Section 504 and Title II.
- Training all school       staff.
- Offering individual       remedies to the student, such as counseling, academic or other therapeutic       services to remedy the effects of the harassment.
- Convening the student’s       IEP team, as appropriate, to determine whether he experienced a FAPE       impact due to the harassment.
- A review of all bullying       incidents for a three-year period at the school to determine any needed       additional remedies. And,
- A climate assessment to       evaluate needed additional supports to ensure a nondiscriminatory school       environment for students.

The letter to Allegheny Valley School  District is available here and the resolution agreement is available here.
   -  Tags: DisabilitiesDiscriminationPress Releases
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