May 22, 2018
Disability Law Colorado Plays a Role in Department of Justice Settlement with Learning Care Group Inc. to Resolve ADA Violations
[Denver, CO] The Justice Department announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with Learning Care Group (LCG), the second largest for-profit child care provider in North America. Disability Law Colorado played a role in the settlement agreement which resolves complaints under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that LCG was discriminating against children with insulin dependent diabetes, on the basis of disability, by failing to make certain reasonable modifications for those children. Under the agreement, LCG agreed to pay $10,000 in compensatory damages to each of the eight aggrieved individuals and families identified. Disability Law Colorado’s client was one of the eight compensated.
In 2012, Disability Law Colorado began working with a three-year-old girl and her mother. The young girl had been recently diagnosed with type 1 juvenile diabetes and required glucose testing and insulin on a daily basis. She was attending La Petite Academy childcare center in Lafayette, CO. La Petite refused to administer her insulin, making it extremely unsafe for her to attend the center. Due to the center’s refusal to provide proper care for their student, the young girl’s mother was forced to quit her job and her college studies to care for her daughter. Disability Law Colorado assisted the family in filing a complaint with the Department of Justice (DOJ) for discrimination and failure to reasonably accommodate the young girl’s disability.
The DOJ and US Attorneys’ Office investigated the complaint, including travelling to Denver to meet with Disability Law Colorado and the young girl’s mother to discuss the situation and the complaint. The DOJ conducted similar interviews across the country. As it turns out, Learning Care Group (LCG), the company who runs La Petite Academy, along with over 900 other childcare facilities across the country, was systemically discriminating against insulin dependent students in their care.
Below is the link to the press release regarding the settlement agreement reached between the DOJ and LCG. It provides relief for some of the families affected, including the family we represented, and requires LCG to implement appropriate reasonable accommodation policies for all children in their care.
Disability Law Colorado is encouraged by the result of the settlement with the hope that it will assist all children with disabilities in LCG childcare centers and is very happy that the family we represented will see some relief.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-reaches-settlement-learning-care-group-inc-resolve-ada-violations
###
About Disability Law Colorado: Disability Law Colorado, Colorado’s Protection & Advocacy System, works to protect and improve the human, civil and legal rights of people with disabilities and older people by embracing opportunities to work on ground-breaking issues that change systems and improve communities. To learn more, visit: www.disabilitylawco.org.
