History
In 1970, the State of Georgia opened the first Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Supports (GNETS) school to educate students with disabilities and special education needs. GNETS is a statewide program that segregates students with disabilities and places them in separate and unequal schools. The program is typically housed in a separate school building, but sometimes occupies a separate wing or classroom of a traditional school. There are currently 24 GNETS programs serving over 5,000 students in Georgia. Most of the students in GNETS are diagnosed with an “emotional and behavioral disorder,” which does not correspond to any specific medical diagnosis.
What is the GNETS?
It is a statewide program that segregates students based on their behavior-related disabilities.
The program is usually housed in separate buildings, but can also be in a separate area in a traditional neighborhood school.
GNETS only serves students with disabilities deemed to have an Emotional and Behavioral Disorder (EBD) eligibility.
GNETS are different from alternative schools as they are only for students with disabilities.
Students at GNETS range from 3-22 years of age.
Currently the 24 GNETS serve around 5,000 students with behavior-related disabilities and autism spectrum disorders.
For the past forty years, students in Georgia needing behavioral, mental health or other therapeutic services have been placed at the Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Supports (GNETS) formerly known as Georgia’s “Psycho-educational Centers.” In 1970, the Rutland Center was established in Athens as the first GNET center. Currently there are 24 GNETS programs throughout Georgia. See the map of GNETS programs around the state.
Students in GNETS
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), passed in 1975, requires that students with disabilities must be educated with their non-disabaled peers to the maximum appropriate extent and must be educated in the “least restrictive environment.” Through the GNETS program, students with disabilities are completely isolated from students in traditional classrooms. While evidence shows that the majority of students in the GNETS program could successfully learn alongside their non-disabled peers, the GNETS program prevents schools from providing support for students with disabilities in traditional schools, and instead segregates students to these isolated and unequal learning environments.
Students in GNETS receive a worse education than their non-disabled peers. Most teachers in the GNETS program do not have training to teach students with behavior-related disabilities. Instead, students in the GNETS program are often primarily taught through computers and lack classroom instruction. Students cannot access the basic credits they need to earn a diploma, resulting in a 10% graduation rate from GNETS centers, compared to a 70% graduation rate in other Georgia public schools. Many GNETS centers do not provide access to basic school experiences like gyms, playgrounds, eating in lunchrooms, libraries, or science labs. In addition, students in GNETS are denied elective courses or extracurricular activities that other students enjoy, such as after-school athletics or clubs. Parents and students have described the GNETS system as similar to a prison with no way out.
Evidence shows the GNETS program disproportionately impacts and systematically segregates students of color. The first GNETS school was housed in a formerly segregated school for black children during the Jim Crow era, and many other GNETS schools would come to be housed in these buildings. When there was outcry against court-ordered integration, GNETS became a way to re-segregate schools. Black boys were taken out of traditional public schools at increasingly young ages due to perceived developmental disabilities.
According to the Department of Education, students of color are nearly twice as likely to be identified as having an emotional disorder as white children and nearly three times as likely to be labelled with a cognitive impairment. The percentage of students who are black boys in GNETS is double that of the percentage of black boys in other public schools across Georgia.
According to Beth Ferri, a disability scholar at Syracuse University, IDEA “treated disability as apolitical – a biological fact. It didn’t think about things like racial or cultural bias.” Despite the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, IDEA created a method for segregation to occur under the guise of disability rather than race.
DOJ Investigation 2015
In 2015, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into the GNETS program and found that the State of Georgia illegally segregates students with disabilities in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This investigation found that the State of Georgia “unnecessarily relies on segregated settings to serve students with behavior-related disabilities in the GNETS Program, through which the State unnecessarily segregates thousands of students from their peers.” Additionally, the segregation of disabled students from traditional schools results in inequality of educational opportunities for students in the GNETS program, as GNETS students generally do not receive grade-level instruction that meets Georgia’s State Standards. The program also “deprives disabled students from “the opportunity to benefit from the stimulation and range of interactions that occur there, including opportunities to learn, observe, and be influenced by their non-disabled peers.” Read the entire July 15, 2015 Letter of Findings by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
The Department of Justice is interested in connecting with families with recent GNETS experiences. Please email GNETS.Feedback@usdoj.gov or call 1-833-305-0150 to share your story.
Class Action Lawsuit Filed 2017
For more information about the litigation, please visit www.centerforpublicrep.org/court_case/gao-v-georgia/ and see the GNETS Complaint Summary.
Parents and Advocates filed suit in federal court October 11, 2017 against the State of Georgia. GAO v. State of Georgia was filed by parents of children with disabilities, the Georgia Advocacy Office, the Center for Public Representation, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, the Arc, DLA Piper LLP and the Goodmark Law Firm. This class action suit alleges that the state of Georgia, in denying GNETS students the opportunity to be educated with their non-disabled peers in neighborhood schools, violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This lawsuit is pushing the boundaries of how federal civil rights law is applied to the continued segregation and dismal educational opportunities offered to students with disabilities.
U.S. District Court Ruling (March 2021)
On March 9, 2021 the United States District Court released a 40-page ruling on several different motions in both the Department of Justice GNETS case and the private plaintiff case. In July 2020, plaintiffs filed a Motion to Consolidate the private plaintiffs’ case with the DOJ case given the similarity of the two GNETS cases. In August 2020, the State of Georgia, again sought to dismiss the lawsuit through a Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings. In March 2021, Judge Brown denied both Motions. Therefore, the case brought by the DOJ and the case brought by the private plaintiffs will proceed separately. This is the overview from the plaintiffs lawyers.
