October 18, 2019 – Lee Romney of KQED looks back at the landmark class action “Larry P” lawsuit which was filed by Public Advocates. For decades, thousands of African American students in California public schools were misplaced in separate, self-contained classes for the mentally retarded through the use of racially and culturally biased standardized I.Q. tests. In 1986, Public Advocates successfully brought a halt to the use of I.Q. tests for placement of African American students in special education classes. This landmark case began in 1971 when Public Advocates’ clients filed a class action lawsuit against the State Department of Education and the San Francisco Unified School District.
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