Queens Mother Is Pursuing Lawsuit Over Sons’ Options on Schools
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
A Queens mother who sued the Department of Education last month for not allowing her twins to transfer out of their failing school under the No Child Left Behind act was granted the transfer she sought, but has turned it down and is pursuing the lawsuit.
The twins attended pre-kindergarten last year at P.S.114 in Queens. This year, the city placed them at P.S. 225, which is a school “in need of improvement.”
Their mother, Jessica Lopez, wants her boys returned to P.S. 114.
She says the city’s offer to move one of the boys to P.S. 47 and another one to P.S. 253 doesn’t do her any good since it would mean shipping the boys to different schools – not P.S. 114 – on school buses.
The lawyer representing Ms. Lopez in the class action suit, Charlie King, said there’s no reason to drop the suit even if the city technically gave the Lopez family what it was due under No Child Left Behind.
“She can still remain the plaintiff even if she gets the relief she’s seeking,” he explained. “Otherwise, the Department of Education could give her a transfer and say then the case can be kicked out.”
He said all that matters is that when Ms. Lopez and the other members of the wronged class brought the suit, she was representative of the class.
“All we want is for Chancellor Klein to follow the law and implement what the law says,” Mr. King said. “In clear and certain terms, every child who requests a transfer is required to receive that transfer. Period.”
A member of the City Council, Eva Moskowitz, said while it seems like the Department of Education complied with the law in the case of Ms. Lopez, it didn’t give the family a good option.
“It’s exceedingly difficult to get kids to a different school, particularly when they’re the same age,” she said. “There’s a lack of common sense about what it takes to raise a family.”
An education official said federal law requires the city to give precedence to low-achieving, low-income students, not siblings. The official also said the family was given the option of moving both boys to a successful school. P.S. 114 was not an option because it is full.
