Cases

Olivia R., et al. v. State of California, et al.

December 15, 2023
The complaint against the State of California alleging that the Del Norte County Unified School District has failed to provide equal educational opportunities to disabled students in the district as required by the Constitution of the state of California and that the State must step in.

EE v. State of California

March 4, 2022
On February 28, 2022, the federal court for the Northern District of California ruled that disabled students in California must have access to a virtual education program equivalent to what non-disabled students receive. If a parent decides that their disabled child’s health would be put at risk by in-person instruction, school districts must permit enrollment to the district’s independent study program with access to the student’s IEP service or provide a reasonable modification in the form of virtual access to student’s typical instruction and special education services. [...]

Smith, et al. v. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, et al.

October 7, 2021
Health insurance plans administered by Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, and endorsed by the California Department of Managed Health Care ("DMHC"), do not provide effective coverage of wheelchairs needed by people with disabilities. Kaiser plans either completely exclude coverage of, or impose a $2,000 cap on coverage of, wheelchairs (which can cost up to $50,000 out-of-pocket). This class action lawsuit, which represents the interests of disabled people who need wheelchairs to remain mobile, stay healthy, commute to work, and participate fully in community life, challenges these exclusions and limitations as discriminatory and a violation of the Affordable Care Act's "essential health benefit" guarantees. [...]

Mark S., et al. v. State of California, et al.

September 13, 2021
The State of California and Pittsburg Unified School District have maintained a separate, unequal, and illegal educational system where Black students, children of color with disabilities and English learners have been segregated in substandard learning environments, excluded from classrooms altogether through the use of unwarranted suspensions and expulsions, and as a result, denied their constitutional right to a public education. Two students, two parents of former students, and a current teacher, filed a claim in Contra Costa County Superior Court, against the State Board of Education, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, the State of California, and Pittsburg Unified School District. The complaint alleges the state and district's unlawful practices harm thousands of its most marginalized students, primarily children of color. [...]

C.B. v. MVUSD, et al.

February 4, 2021
On behalf of an 11-year-old Black disabled student (C.B.) who was repeatedly handcuffed and restrained by school police, DREDF and co-counsel Disability Rights California and Barajas & Rivera APC filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that Moreno Valley Unified School District and Riverside County discriminates against students with disabilities with a demonstrated bias toward Black students in its disciplinary practices. [...]

Complaints of Disability Discrimination – California Hospital Visitation Policies

August 27, 2020
DREDF and co-counsel Disability Rights California, Justice in Aging, and Independent Living Resource Center San Francisco filed five administrative complaints this morning with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) against five California hospitals who are disregarding the rights of patients with disabilities including older adults with disabilities during Covid-19. [...]

Disability Rights California v. County of Alameda

July 31, 2020
DREDF and co-counsel Disability Rights California (DRC), Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho, and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of DRC and its constituents with serious mental health disabilities against Alameda County and Alameda Health System. The lawsuit challenges the County’s failures to provide adequate community-based services to people with serious mental health disabilities causing unnecessarily cycling through the County’s locked facilities, including the John George Psychiatric Hospital and the Santa Rita Jail. The complaint details how Black people with serious mental health disabilities are harmed at staggeringly high rates by Alameda County’s failures to provide intensive and appropriate community-based services. The lawsuit seeks increased linkages and access to community-based services and decreased reliance on institutionalization. [...]

California v. Texas

May 17, 2020
Brief of the American Association of People With Disabilities, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, and 15 Other Leading National Disability Rights Organizations as Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioners [...]

Kerri K, et al. vs. State of California, et al.

May 15, 2019
DREDF and co-counsel Public Counsel and Sullivan & Cromwell filed a class action lawsuit this morning on behalf of five elementary school children with disabilities and their parents and guardians against the California Department of Education (CDE), directors of the Contra Costa County Office of Education, and staff at Floyd I. Marchus School to challenge the illegal and abusive use of restraints and seclusion in non-emergency situations. [...]

State of Texas, et al. Plaintiffs-Appellees

April 1, 2019
An amicus brief in the Texas v. U..S. case, on appeal in the 5th circuit, was filed on Monday, April 1 by DREDF and the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, working with the Dentons law firm on behalf of our two organizations and 13 other leading disability rights organizations. The case was originally brought in district court by a number of states, led by Texas, that claimed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was rendered unconstitutional when the Trump administration reduced the mandatory penalty for failing to buy health insurance to zero, because the ACA was based on Congress' authority to tax and there was no longer a tax. [...]