## Facts

- Students with disabilities in Chicago Public Schools (CPS), through their parents and on behalf of a class, alleged systemic segregation and overly restrictive special-education placements.
- Plaintiffs asserted claims under the IDEA (and also pleaded ADA, Rehabilitation Act § 504, and § 1983), focusing on CPS’s alleged failure to educate students in the least restrictive environment (LRE).
- The case was filed in 1992 as a class action in federal court; a class of similarly situated CPS students with disabilities was certified.
- A jointly selected expert panel concluded CPS was seriously out of compliance with IDEA’s LRE requirement.
- Evidence showed CPS often used disability categories and severity, rather than individualized determinations, resulting in “categorical placements” in separate classrooms or schools.
- The record included evidence that many students with “mild cognitive” disabilities could be educated in regular classrooms for at least half the day with supports, yet only a minority were placed that way.
- Plaintiffs and CPS reached a comprehensive settlement governing CPS’s obligations; the court approved that settlement in January 1998.
- The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) did not settle, disputing that it had independent responsibility for CPS’s alleged LRE violations.
- After a bench trial limited to the state’s responsibility, the court decided whether ISBE had violated IDEA by failing to ensure CPS’s LRE compliance.

## Issues

1. Whether ISBE, as the state educational agency, has ultimate responsibility under IDEA to ensure CPS complies with the LRE mandate, even though local districts implement placements.
2. Whether ISBE’s monitoring and enforcement efforts satisfied IDEA’s requirement that the state ensure compliance by local districts.
3. Whether systemic IDEA LRE violations permit class-wide injunctive relief requiring a state remedial plan.

## Decision

- The court held ISBE bears ultimate responsibility under IDEA to ensure CPS complies with the LRE requirement.
- The court found CPS’s LRE failures were systemic and that ISBE failed to discharge its oversight and enforcement duties despite evidence of longstanding segregation.
- The court rejected ISBE’s argument that responsibility rested only with CPS and that ISBE functioned merely as a funding or advisory entity.
- The court determined system-wide injunctive relief against ISBE was appropriate and required ISBE to submit and implement a remedial plan to bring CPS into LRE compliance (later addressed through a consent decree).

## Legal Principles

- IDEA places ultimate accountability on the state educational agency to ensure that all IDEA requirements, including LRE, are met statewide by local educational agencies.
- The LRE mandate requires individualized placement decisions and disfavors disability-category-based assignments that segregate students when appropriate supports could permit education with nondisabled peers.
- A state educational agency may be liable under IDEA when it knows or should know of systemic noncompliance by a local district and fails to correct it through effective monitoring and enforcement.
- Where IDEA violations are structural and widespread, equitable relief may include class-wide, forward-looking orders requiring a state-developed remedial plan and ongoing compliance oversight.

## Conclusion

The court held that IDEA makes the state educational agency the ultimate guarantor of LRE compliance and found ISBE liable for failing to ensure CPS corrected systemic, overly restrictive placements; the court ordered state-level, system-wide remedial planning and enforcement.


Corey H. v. Bd. of Educ. of Chi., 995 F. Supp. 900 (N.D. Ill. 1998)