Seven parents joined the Philadelphia parent advocacy group Parents United for Public Education in filing suit over the State Education Department’s alleged failure to meet its legal obligation to investigate claims of massive deficiencies in city schools.

According to the suit, Parents United delivered 825 parent complaints to the Pennsylvania Education Department during the 2013–14 school year over everything from overcrowded classrooms and a shortage of school nurses and counselors to the lack of art, music and foreign language classes and unsafe or unsanitary conditions that impede students’ learning.

State law requires the Education Department to investigate allegations of curriculum deficiencies, but Parents United claims that the complaints they forwarded were met with either a one-page form letter informing them that the matter was up to local authorities or with no response at all.

The group hopes its lawsuit will compel the state education secretary and Education Department to investigate their complaints.

“We’re asking the court to require them to do that,” said Ben Geffen, a public interest lawyer representing the plaintiffs. “They can’t simply ignore parents, and slough problems onto local school districts and wash their hands of them.”

Philly.com, Sept. 11
Philadelphia Magazine, Sept. 9