Suit: Test discriminates against disabled students

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A nonprofit law firm has filed a federal class-action lawsuit claiming Alaska's new high school exit exam discriminates against disabled students.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, seeks to create reasonable accommodations for disabled students and to develop alternative ways of assessing students who can't do well on tests.

Disabled students are flunking the test at a ratio of 3-to-1, said Sid Wolinsky, an attorney with Disability Rights Advocates in Oakland, California.

"We're not seeking to stop the whole test, we're not seeking to set aside standards, we're not seeking damages," Wolinsky said. "We're seeking that the safeguards required by both federal and Alaska law be implemented."

The lawsuit lists five high school students and the Learning Disabilities Association of Alaska as plaintiffs.

State education officials said they had not yet reviewed the lawsuit and could not comment.

"Obviously we're concerned any time the state Board of Education and the Department of Education are implicated in not serving all of Alaska's children well," said department spokesman Harry Gamble.

Seniors this year are the first required to pass the exam in reading, writing and math to get a diploma.

Wolinsky said the firm filed similar cases in Oregon and California.

In the Oregon case, filed in 2000, the state agreed to enlist a national panel of education and disability experts to devise measures to protect disabled children on standard tests. Those measures were put in place in 2001, Wolinsky said.

The California lawsuit was filed in 2001, raising the same issues about exams slated to begin this year. School officials there delayed giving the exams until at least 2006, but the issue has not been resolved, Wolinsky said.