Posted at 2:45 p.m., Thursday, August 16, 2001

Judge gives state November deadline to meet Felix needs

Advertiser Staff

U.S. District Judge David Ezra gave the state a little breathing room today in its effort to improve services to special education students under the terms of the Felix consent decree.

Ezra gave the state until Nov. 1 to show two-thirds of its complexes — a high school and its feeder schools — in full compliance and all Stage 1 benchmarks complete.

If the state doesn't meet that deadline, Ezra said he will set in motion the process to appoint a receiver and place special education under the control of the United States — without further action from him.

He did not lay out details on how a receiver would operate; that would come later.

If the state does meet the November deadline, Ezra granted them until March 31, 2002, to reach "substantial" compliance. In effect, that would give the state a three-month extension.

Now, nine of 41 complexes are in full compliance, and 12 are in provisional compliance. That means that 20 are in noncompliance.