Press

In The News

10/2018

New Yorker // Georgia’s Separate and Unequal Special-Education System: A statewide network of schools for disabled students has trapped black children in neglect and isolation

02/2018

NPR web and radio // Overwhelmed In The ER: Georgia’s Mental Health Crisis

Piece quotes GAO attorney Leslie Lipson on problems in Milledgeville’s mental health facility, stating “There have been enormous abuses, both physical and sexual abuse, untimely deaths that happened in facilities, lack of medical care,” she said. “I definitely think use of emergency rooms as psychiatric care for people with disabilities is an indicator of the failure of a community health system,” she said. “When you talk to people that end up in ERs for their psychiatric needs there were multiple pleas for help and people searching for services way before they get to that point.”

10/2017

Education Week // With Federal Suit Stalled, Ga. Advocates File Special Education Complaint

Article on the complaint filed by GAO and several partners against the Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support, or GNETS. The complaint argues that the students in the program are isolated from their peers in violation of the ADA, and that they are provided an inferior education. The article explains the US DOJ has a similar suit filed, but is currently stalled, pending a finding that the Department has standing to file on behalf of GNETS students.

10/2017

Atlanta Journal-Constitution // Georgia psychoeducational schools an unconstitutional 'dumping ground'

Article explores new suit claims and discusses the US DOJ suit regarding GNETS, and how the GAO filed suit in order to ensure GNETS complaints receive a hearing even if DOJ loses its current appeal. The article quotes attorney, Leslie Lipson, saying “This is definitely a way to get our hands on the rudder.”

10/2017

WABE (Local NPR) // Advocates Sue Georgia Over Educational Program

Quotes Attorney Leslie Lipson on the current GNETS system. “They don’t have access to role models and peer environments —or prom, lunch, playgrounds, science, a lot of the things that we would say is really a part of the school experience.”

10/2017

Telegraph // Parents of students with disabilities sue state of Georgia, allege discrimination

Article discusses how the GAO suit alleges GNETS placement discriminates against students with disabilities, specifically at Elam Alexander Academy in Bibb County.

10/2017

Mother Jones // Will Trump’s Justice Department Pay Attention to Disability Rights?

Article quotes GAO Attorney, Leslie Lipson, calling GNETS “drop out factories for abandoned kids.”

10/2017

NOS Magazine // Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against ‘Drop out factories for abandoned kids’

Citing the Mother Jones article, GAO attorney Leslie Lipson is quoted, calling GNETS “drop out factories for abandoned kids.”

03/2017

The Atlantic // The Separate, Unequal Education of Students With Special Needs: Georgia’s system to teach children with disabilities falls vastly short of its promise

Leslie Lipson, speaking on children placed in GNETS system, states that “because of their disabilities … these kids need potent, individualized instruction, but instead they’re receiving one-size-fits-all—or what I call ‘one-size-fits-none’—computerized instruction and coercive behavior controls, or warehousing."

07/2015

WABE (Local NPR) // Georgia Illegally Segregates Children With Disabilities, DOJ Finds (quotes Leslie Lipson)

07/2015

ProPublica // Georgia is Segregating Troublesome Kids in Schools Used During Jim Crow

This report, from a NY-based investigative journalism nonprofit, is the most thorough and analytical in the coverage to date. Leslie Lipson, program director and attorney at Ga. Advocacy Office, is quoted.

08/2015

Augusta Chronicle // Georgia offers no plan to fix schools' behavioral and emotional disabilities program

08/2015

Atlanta Journal-Constitution // Georgia still hasn’t responded to DOJ charges of segregating students with disabilities