Jun 5, 2012
In Academy of Waterford (MI) 112 LRP 15747 (OCR 2011) the staff at Academy of Waterford, a public charter school in Michigan, violated 504 when it told the parent of 10 year-year-old with diabetes that he must be accompanied by family members if he wished to participate in an afterschool softball game. The charter school staff were concerned that there were not staff available to supervise the student's administration of insulin. Additionally, the charter school participated in "Camp Exposure," an out-of-town educational field trip. The "Camp Exposure" program specifically barred students with diabetes from participating in the camp unless the students could take care of their own injections without supervision. Apparently, "Camp Exposure" was not concerned with exposing students with diabetes to its program. The camp counselor explained that "diabetes" is a "red flag" to follow-up with students because the program's counselors were not trained. Technically, the camp was separate from the charter school, but, by coincidence, it was managed by the school's charter management company.
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) investigated the parent's complaint and determined the charter school had denied the student the equal opportunity to participate in afterschool and extracurricular activities that it offered students without disabilities. Unlike this student's family, the parents of students without disabilities were not required to attend afterschool activities with their children. Additionally, the public charter school violated 504 by participating in Camp Exposure, a program which denies students with certain disabilities the opportunity to participate in the camp's program. Camp Exposure had a policy of denying participation to students with diabetes who could not administer their own insulin injections. Academy of Waterford, the charter school program, had an arrangement with the charter management company's camp. Since the camp categorically excluded students with disabilities requiring medical services, the Academy is violating 504 by having a contractual or other arrangement with a company that discriminates against students with disabilities.
