The company that was responsible for running the Atlanta school district’s alternative school has been dropped from a lawsuit alleging violation of students’ constitutional rights.
The American Civil Liberties Union took the action Thursday shortly after the Atlanta Public Schools decided to not renew its contract with Community Education Partners Inc. The school district, however, remains a defendant in the lawsuit.
Stephen J. Alford, spokesman for the Atlanta Public Schools, said the district decided not to renew its contract with CEP after completing the company’s evaluation.
“APS believes that it is best suited to operate the program internally and is redesigning the program consistent with its school reform initiatives,” said Alford. “APS is committed to providing students assigned to Forrest Hills [Academy] with an appropriate curriculum and the necessary support services to help them be successful.”
It is unfortunate, he said, that the district must continue to expend resources to defend a lawsuit based on alleged conduct by an education provider it no longer utilizes.
The ACLU filed suit last year against the Atlanta Board of Education and Community Education Partners, alleging its alternative school was run like a prison that subjected students to routine body searches, left them unprotected against violence and failed to educate them.
CEP’s CEO, Randle Richardson, said he was relieved and grateful the ACLU agreed to drop the company from the suit.
He said it is disturbing the suit was filed with “no firsthand knowledge” of the program or before CEP could respond to the ACLU’s concerns.
“This was a clear indication they did not want the truth to get in the way of their organizational biases and public relations efforts,” Richardson said.
The ACLU and Atlanta school officials are engaged in discussions aimed at resolving the remainder of the lawsuit, which is pending in federal court in Atlanta, and administrative proceedings before the Atlanta Public School Board.
“The appalling performance of the school while run by CEP highlights the significant problems inherent to the privatization of public education, and [the Atlanta school system] deserves credit for ending its relationship with CEP,” said Reginald T. Shuford, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Racial Justice Program. “It is of paramount importance, however, that this be only a first step. It is now incumbent upon [the school system] to honor its commitment to provide all of its students with an adequate public education.”
The school was designed as a privately run, taxpayer-funded alternative middle and high school for students with behavioral problems.
In a statement released Wednesday, however, Shuford said that placement in the school is often arbitrary and students referred to the school are routinely denied meaningful opportunities to challenge compulsory assignment to the school.
CEP, based in Nashville, has run alternative schools in Houston, Philadelphia, Richmond, Orlando and Florida’s Pinellas and Bay districts through contracts with public school systems since 1995. In 2005, CEP’s annual revenues totaled $70 million. Since its contract began with the Atlanta Independent School System in 2002, Atlanta’s taxpayers have paid CEP more than $50 million.
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