State: Durham Students With Disabilities Denied Required Education at Youth Home

North Carolina education officials have ordered Durham Public Schools to take corrective action after finding that students with disabilities at the Durham County Youth Home did not receive required special education services during a facility-wide lockdown in early 2025.

An April 24 report from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction’s Office of Exceptional Children found that DPS violated its obligation to implement students’ individualized education programs, or IEPs, while they were detained at the county-run juvenile facility.

The finding follows a complaint from the ACLU of North Carolina and Duke Law’s Children’s Law Clinic, which alleged that disabled youth at the facility were denied legally required educational services from February to March 2025.

“Children should not bear the consequences of systemic failures,” said Peggy Nicholson, supervising attorney at the law clinic. “The Youth Home is entrusted with caring for these children and ensuring their access to required services, including special education.”

The Youth Home serves young people with pending juvenile court cases. Under federal law, detained students with disabilities who already had IEPs remain entitled to a free appropriate public education. DPS contracts with the Youth Home to provide educational services there, including exceptional children’s services.

The report says the facility went into lockdown in early February and March 2025. During the lockdown, staff secured residents in their rooms, moved them through the facility one at a time, and suspended programming except for essential safety activities.

DPS officials told investigators that teachers were available and prepared each day to provide a full six hours of services. But facility security procedures prevented residents from traveling to education spaces, and DPS teachers could not enter housing units.

According to the report, DPS officials sought alternatives, including teaching small groups in housing units, providing virtual instruction, and sending instructional packets to students. Facility officials denied those requests.

The report says the Youth Home rejected virtual instruction because computers were in programming areas, not housing pods. It also rejected work packets because pencils and pens posed safety risks.

But DPI found that DPS lacked clear written procedures for how educational services would continue, change, be documented, or be made up during lockdowns or other unusual disruptions.

Durham Public Schools expressed a commitment to providing educational services in a statement provided to Southpoint Access on April 29.

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“We will continue to align with guidance from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and advocate for conditions that best support student learning, while ensuring all services are delivered safely and effectively,” the district said.

District officials said teachers remain prepared to provide services, but “the amount of time students are available for educational services can vary based on facility operations and safety protocols.”

The district said access becomes limited during heightened security situations, with full instructional services “resuming as conditions allow.”

DPI ordered DPS, working with Youth Home staff, to draft new procedures by May 15. The procedures must address when access to educational services may be limited, how staff will deliver alternative services, how the district will provide compensatory services, and how staff will track missed services.

The district also must train exceptional children teachers, specialists, related service providers, and school administrators involved with the facility. DPS must submit documentation of that training to DPI by June 1.

“We welcome DPI’s decision to implement new policies protecting students with disabilities from practices their investigation found to be unlawful,” said Michele Delgado, staff attorney for the ACLU of North Carolina.

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