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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed suit against a Lancaster school district arguing that it has denied refugee children the learning opportunities afforded them by law.

(File photo, Shutterstock.com.)

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed suit against a Lancaster school district arguing that the district has denied refugee children the learning opportunities afforded to them by law.

Similar suits were recently settled by districts in Utica City, NY, and in Florida.

The latest legal action, brought against the School District of Lancaster this week, involves claims by a group of local refugee students who "were, are, or may be in the future denied their right to equal educational opportunities and meaningful public education by Defendant School District of Lancaster in violation of the U.S. Constitution, federal civil rights statutes, and Pennsylvania education law."

The Education Law Center co-counseled with the ACLU on the suit, and Pepper Hamilton LLP is providing pro bono counsel.

The suit says 4.5 percent of the district's more than 11,000 students are refugees. The district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Represented by the ACLU, the students -- ranging in age from 17 to 21 -- allege the district turned away older student refugees, those in their late teens, delayed enrollment for others beyond the legally allowed period, or automatically enrolled them in a privately run alternative school -- the Phoenix Academy -- often without adequately discussing or explaining the move to the students or their parents.

The refugees represented in the class action suit hail from Somalia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma and Nepal.

"Our clients have already experienced much trauma and loss before arriving in this country," Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. "Rather than helping them make the difficult adjustment by providing educational resources required by law, the school district has denied them an education completely or forced them into an alternative school, where they are often bullied and don't learn."

Lancaster is a popular location for arriving refugees, due to its proximity to Philadelphia and New York City and the infrastructure already in place to welcome them here. The refugees residing in the city and surrounding towns hail from all over the globe and conflict zones including Syria.

But the ACLU's lawsuit alleges that the welcome offered to them by local outreach groups and residents hasn't always extended into the classroom.

According to the lawsuit, federal law prohibits schools from discouraging or denying enrollment, particularly to older children, and failing to provide learning aids like translation services when communicating with families.

A summary of the lawsuit can be found below.

ACLU statement on School District of Lancaster refugee student lawsuit by PennLive on Scribd

A Georgetown study referenced by the Keystone Crossroads news service in its report on the lawsuit found similar practices to be commonplace in some areas despite the legal prohibitions. Possible reasons include pressure to keep graduation rates up, meet stringent benchmarks or because schools lack the adequate resources to cater to refugee students and their families.

The Georgetown study also said it's not just refugee students who stand to be affected, but that any students for whom English is a second language could also be similarly marginalized.

In Lancaster's case, the ACLU argues the district systematically refused refugee students access to its McCaskey High School and the International School contained therein, which is "specially designed for newly-arrived immigrant LEP [Limited English Proficient] students."

"Instead," the lawsuit alleges, "School District of Lancaster denies them enrollment in the District altogether or discourages or delays their admission, and if it does admit the students, funnels them to a substantially inferior alternative high school called Phoenix Academy."

A draft of the ACLU's lawsuit was also highly critical of the Phoenix Academy, saying "Many immigrant LEP students placed at Phoenix drop out because they are not provided sufficient supports to overcome language barriers to enable them to learn the core curriculum, and because of unchecked, persistent bullying in a severe, authoritarian environment that is particularly ill-suited for refugees."

The School District disputes these claims and also says the same English language instruction is available at Phoenix Academy as at Lancaster's McCaskey High School.

School District of Lancaster superintendent Damaris Rau told Keystone Crossroads that the district believes its policies are meeting legal requirements.

Further complicating the picture, though, are the perceived ambiguities within some of those requirements.

According to Keystone Crossroads:

Federal law requires schools to "make meaningful efforts to provide equal educational opportunities, including translation services," while the Pennsylvania Department of Education says schools have to take steps to support students based on their needs and district resources.

PDE provides more detailed information, like how many hours of English language instruction students should get, but they are guidelines based on best practices -- not requirements, PDE officials told the news service.

And funding also often fails to go far enough, critics say.

In Lancaster, partnerships with other schools and organizations are used to fill in the gaps and to provide refugees with certain services, including English instruction, tutoring and translation. But those partnerships often target the youngest students, leading some older refugee students to fall through the cracks.

It is the older refugee students enrolled in the Phoenix Academy, which caters to students in grades 6 through 12, that concern the ACLU and similar advocates in this case.

The lawsuit filed this week by a group of the refugee students through the ACLU seeks a court order directing the school district to admit the students and class members to McCaskey High School -- which it argues has superior programs than Phoenix Academy -- and to "make available the full range of curricular and extra-curricular programs and activities, including access to the International School and all appropriate accommodations and modifications to overcome language barriers, in time to begin the fall semester on August 30, 2016."

A school district spokesperson declined to comment further on the allegations when reached by PennLive Monday, saying the district would be withholding comment until it received a formal copy of the complaint.