by John Cummings

Amityville, Copiague and North Babylon School Districts, along with 10 other Suffolk districts, have been named defendants in a federal class-action lawsuit charging them a "systematic failure" to accept and educate homeless children "simply because they are homeless."

Along with the 13 school districts, New York State and the Suffolk Social Services Department are also accused in the civil suit of being party to the denial of schooling to an unnamed number of students. The lawsuit charged that federal law to require education for the homeless is being violated or evaded repeatedly in Suffolk where homeless people in general are often faced with reactions ranging from indifference to hostility.

Court papers filed Feb. 20 in U.S. District Court in Central Islip seek no monetary damages, but only compliance with the federal McKinney-Vento Act, which requires that homeless children receive a continuing education and provides federal funds through the state to achieve this. It was brought by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty in Washington represented by attorney Jeffrey A. Simes of the firm of Goodwin Proctor in Manhattan and the Long Island Advocacy Center in Hauppauge.

The lawsuit claims the state, the social services department and the districts are in violation of this law because welfare programs often move homeless families and school districts, citing lack of residency, resist accepting them.

Copiague Schools Superintendent Willam Bolton said he was "surprised" by the lawsuit. "We have always tried very hard to accommodate and educate homeless children. There are many instances where we have done this," he said.

Jack Waters, assistant Amityville Supertendent, said his district had forwarded the legal complaint to school district attorneys who were studying it to prepare their response. He said he didn’t want to comment further. Fred Smith, interim assistant superintendent for business in North Babylon, said the suit had just been served and there would be no comment until the district had had a chance to study it.

In the complaint, one specific case cited is a mother, referred to only as R.I. and her daughter, A.B., a 16-year-old who have no permanent address "and who often spend each night of the week in a different location." It said they have been homeless since August, 2002, when they fled from their home in the Middle Country School District because of domestic violence.

They were relocated to a motel in Copiague, the suit said, but were denied enrollment in the Copiague schools because her mother did not have her daughter’s records from Middle Country. When she was finally admitted, it was alleged, she was diagnosed with a disability and put on a waiting list for BOCES placement and offered tutoring at the Copiague Library.

"The tutoring was not provided on a consistent basis. The tutor frequently did not show up, and when she did, would spend at most 90 minutes with A.B. rather than a full school day."

In March 2003, the suit stated, the mother and daughter were transferred by Social Services to a motel in Center Moriches and the Copiague district said she was no longer eligible for help by the Copiague district.

"A.B. has missed six months of school on the aggregate waiting for transportation to catch up with her various, new temporary housing assignments," it was charged.