Inaccessible and inferior classrooms. Arduous, lengthy bus rides. Children forced into separate, restrictive schools.  

Frustrated parents complained, and the Education Law Center-PA took up their cause in Hendricks v. Gilhool, a 1989 federal class-action lawsuit that convincingly demonstrated a pattern of discrimination against students with disabilities in multiple school districts.  

Parents, including Cheryl Hendricks, mother of Nicholas, then 11, said their students were being treated unfairly and denied equal access to education guaranteed by federal laws.

Hendricks noted that her son, who was on the autism spectrum, had to change schools “almost every year” and that classrooms were “just not comparable” to regular-education classrooms. “We are not asking for any more for our children. All we ask is that our children be treated equally,” Hendricks said at the time.

Evidence showed that school districts in Pennsylvania refused to open their classrooms to students with disabilities. As a result, students were assigned to inferior mobile classrooms, storage rooms with exposed pipes, or excessively crowded spaces. Some of their classes were located in classrooms not comparable to those serving the larger student population in terms of size, sanitation, noise levels, lighting, and ventilation. And some children were transported to schools that were as much as 1¾ hours from their homes or were moved to new school districts, making it challenging for their families to settle into the school community.  

In March 1989, U.S. District Court Judge Daniel H. Huyett III issued summary judgment for the plaintiffs and ordered the state to prepare a remedial plan to ensure equal access to education in comparable classrooms for students with disabilities.

Former Executive Director Leonard Rieser, ELC-PA’s lead counsel in the lawsuit, described the issue at the time as “a systemic problem, one that only the districts collectively can solve, and the districts have not worked out a system for solving it.” The state Department of Education, he told the Allentown Morning Call, had “the legal duty to go to the districts, to pull them together, or push them together, to get something worked out.”

Recalling the case recently, Rieser noted that the problem “was most severe, at least as I recall, for kids with more complex, ‘low-incidence’ disabilities. It felt, at least to me, like [their placement] reflected an assumption that the quality of their space was less important than that made available to other students.”

In a matter of months, in January of 1990, the state Board of Education unanimously adopted new special-education regulations, including “the Fair Share Plan,” which required districts and Intermediate Units statewide to “provide for sufficient appropriate classroom space for all exceptional students educated within the … Intermediate Unit/school district.”

The Fair Share criteria mandated that space for special education students “be comparable in quality to that provided to non-handicapped students” in location, instructional appropriateness, accessibility, size, lighting, and ventilation. The plan also laid out standards related to relocating classes for students.

Said Rieser: “This situation really reflected a governance problem, in that Intermediate Units didn’t have the power to compel any district to provide any particular amount or quality of space, even when the IUs were serving kids from that district, among others.”

“That’s why we needed PDE — a higher authority — to be involved, which was itself a change, because PDE was not in the habit of seeing itself that way, in my opinion.”

While much progress has been made as a result of this case and others that ELC-PA and our partners have brought over the years, we continue to advocate today on behalf of students with disabilities to ensure their inclusion in appropriate classrooms.

For Immediate Release: October 23, 2025
For More Information: Lindsay Wagner, 215-701-4264, [email protected]

New research from School Board Spotlight, a project of the Pipeline Education Fund, reveals that numerous school boards across Pennsylvania are pursuing partisan policies that harm students and undermine parents’ ability to keep politics out of the classroom. The Education Law Center-PA (ELC-PA) is calling attention to these findings and the urgent need for accountability in Pennsylvania’s public schools.

The analysis, based on school board agendas, meeting minutes, and policy changes since 2023, found that 1 in 5 school boards reviewed have passed censorship measures, restricted books and library materials, and targeted LGBTQ+ students with discriminatory practices. The study reviewed 193 school boards statewide and highlights troubling trends in several counties that each have more than two school districts with harmful policies, including Adams, Beaver, Bucks, Lancaster, and York.

Since launching our Inclusive Schools and Honest Education initiative in 2022, ELC-PA has been tracking the disturbing increase in these policies. Parents and community members across the state have contacted ELC-PA to express serious concern about the harm these policies cause; during the last school year, people from 37 school districts have contacted us or our coalition Pennsylvanians for Welcoming and Inclusive Schools (PA-WINS) to raise questions or request assistance. ELC-PA provides legal analysis of proposed policies, advice about advocating to school boards, and complaint options for impacted students. Often, parents report that these harmful policies are being pushed by a few extremist members of their school board who don’t represent their community’s values for inclusive and welcoming schools that support all children.  

“Students deserve inclusive schools where they can learn without being subjected to partisan politics or discriminatory practices,” said Kristina Moon, ELC-PA senior attorney. “These policies not only limit educational opportunities but also put vulnerable students, including LGBTQ+ youth, at serious risk. And school leaders need to be aware that both federal and state courts have found schools liable for discriminating against students on the basis of gender identity.”

ELC-PA will continue to advocate for students’ rights and ensure that districts are held accountable for policies that put children at risk.

School Board Spotlight has made the Pennsylvania findings publicly available in a searchable database, allowing parents, educators, and community members to view policies in their districts: https://schoolboardspotlight.org/pennsylvania/

People seeking advice about policies in their school districts can call Education Law Center-PA’s Helpline at 267-436-6095 (Eastern and Central PA), or 412-258-2120 (Western PA).

###

The Education Law Center-PA (ELC-PA) is a nonprofit, legal advocacy organization with offices in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, dedicated to ensuring that all children in Pennsylvania have access to a quality public education. Through legal representation, impact litigation, community engagement, and policy advocacy, ELC advances the rights of underserved children, including children living in poverty, children of color, children in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, children with disabilities, English learners, LGBTQ students, and children experiencing homelessness. For more information, visit elc-pa.org or @edlawcenterpa on Twitter.