Casey A. v. Gundry

Casey A. v. Gundry is a class action lawsuit against officials at the Los Angeles County Office of Education and against the Los Angeles Probation Department. It challenges the inadequate educational and rehabilitative services provided to youth who were detained at the county’s largest juvenile probation camp, the Challenger Memorial Youth Center. The problems at Challenger included lack of meaningful instruction for students detained there and a complete absence of programming for the youth.

The ACLU reached a comprehensive settlement in May 2011 that requires the defendants to overhaul the educational, rehabilitative, and transition programs for youth at Challenger, with monitoring and technical support from three nationally recognized experts in providing education in detention settings. The settlement also required defendants to provide compensatory services to students who had been denied adequate services.

The ACLU is currently monitoring settlement implementation, and the court retained jurisdiction over the case for four years to ensure compliance with the settlement.

UPDATE: February 6, 2012
LACOE Probation filed its corrective action plan to come into compliance with the settlement agreement.

UPDATE: December 16, 2011
The ACLU reached an agreement with the defendants under which they would develop corrective action plans in consultation with the experts to address the areas of non-compliance with the settlement agreement identified in the 11/15/11 expert report.

UPDATE: November 15, 2011
Second quarterly monitoring report released by expert team.

UPDATE: July 8, 2011
First quarterly monitoring report released by expert team.

UPDATE: May 2011
The ACLU reached a comprehensive settlement that requires the defendants to overhaul the educational, rehabilitative, and transition programs for youth at Challenger, with monitoring and technical support from three nationally recognized experts in providing education in detention settings. Read more about the settlement.

UPDATE: November 4, 2010
The settlement agreement calls for a panel of experts to help develop a detailed reform plan in 13 areas that will transform education and rehabilitative services provided to students at Challenger over a period of four years.

FILING: January 8, 2010
The ACLU/SC filed the complaint alleging numerous violations of students’ educational rights.