Most school districts in Mississippi fail to comply with state and
federal law...

Coalition trains advocates of children with disabilities in
Mississippi

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Rhonda Sonnenberg   Read the full piece here

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Friend,

Kate Centellas and her husband, Miguel, are professors at the
University of Mississippi in Oxford. They have three children and live
in a comfortable, upper-middle-class suburban house in a professional
family neighborhood.

Kate will tell you matter-of-factly that she is white, well-educated,
financially secure and "privileged."

She will also tell you that even with those considerable advantages,
she has had to wage a relentless, yearslong battle with the Oxford
School District to ensure that her daughter Zoe, who has autism and is
soon to be 14, receives the special education (SPED) services she
needs and which the federal government requires under the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act

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(IDEA).

Under the IDEA, each state and its school districts must provide
children with disabilities a "free appropriate public
education" and "special education and related
services."

Yet for 18 months after Zoe was diagnosed with autism in 2020, she
received no autism-specific treatment.

After a breakdown in 2021, Zoe spent 18 months at an all-day, locked
and restricted outpatient treatment center at the district's
expense, but her parents felt that she was being
"warehoused." They wanted the academics, structure,
socialization and SPED services they believed a public school could
provide. After getting nowhere, Centellas took family leave and then a
deferred sabbatical.

"Advocating for my daughter became my full-time job," she
said.

Every day, parents across Mississippi experience similarly daunting
struggles because most school districts fail to comply with state and
federal law.

To address the dire need for child disability attorneys to help
parents navigate these challenges in Mississippi, the Southern Poverty
Law Center last month co-sponsored a special education legal clinic in
Oxford along with coalition partners the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Mississippi
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, Disability Rights Mississippi
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(DRMS) and the private law practice of Frye Reeves
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. The clinic provided training for lawyers interested in representing
families, for advocates who help parents navigate the system without
an attorney and for parents who need to know their rights under the
law.

The coalition plans to hold clinics at least three times each year,
rotating between the northern, central and southern regions of
Mississippi. 

Read More

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In solidarity,

Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center

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working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy,
strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of
all people.

Friend, will you make a gift to help the SPLC fight for
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