This article was originally published by 11AliveNews.

Classroom Accessibility Misses Mark

Portable classrooms can bring real relief to overcrowded schools, but they may also create barriers for students with disabilities.

An 11Alive investigation found a number of local school systems that don't appear to be doing what the federal law requires to make classrooms accessible.

11Alive Investigator Jennifer Leslie learned the U.S. Department of Education is looking in to claims that school officials in Gwinnett County Public Schools violated the civil rights of one of their disabled students. The student, a 6th grader, was assigned to a 7th grade resource classroom, because he could not walk up the steps of a trailer to study with his peers.

Fabiola Armitage and her son Jason have learned to deal with adversity. Four years ago, during a soccer game, Jason collided head-on with another player and was paralyzed from the nose down. Since the accident, Jason has re-gained some movement and his mind remains sharp.

"He's come an awfully long way. I'm hopeful with the stem cell research that he will be back on his feet," Fabiola said about her son. For now, Jason uses a wheelchair, which made it impossible for him last fall to get to one of his 6th grade classrooms in a trailer at Dacula Middle School.

Instead of installing a ramp or moving the class to accommodate him, school officials assigned Jason to an accessible 7th grade classroom in the main building.

"Just the whole fact of being excluded from some classrooms didn't make sense to me," Fabiola said. "None of the 6th grade classrooms out there in the trailers have ramps, and there have got to be about 50 trailers out there."

In fact, there are more than 1,000 portable classrooms in the Gwinnett County school system. Not even one of the portable classrooms is equipped with a wheelchair ramp.

In a 1998 affidavit, superintendent Alvin Wilbanks argued that adding ramps would cost too much money and take up too much space. So, the local fire marshal gave Gwinnett Schools a variance or waiver from the state accessibility law that requires ramps on all new classroom trailers. There was no mention of federal law.

"If you ever get sued in federal court, we're not promising that a federal judge is going to honor this variance," Georgia Fire Commissioner John Oxendine said.

Any portable classroom that was bought or relocated after January 1992 must be accessible under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to the U.S. Justice Department. This is true no matter how many disabled students are enrolled in the school or how many use the portable classrooms.

11Alive found Gwinnett County Public Schools are not the only major school system in Metro Atlanta that appear to fall short when it comes to the ADA.

• Cherokee County has no ramps on any of its portable classrooms
  
• In Douglas County 33 percent of them have ramps
  
• In Clayton County about 50 percent are accessible
  
• Officials in Cobb County say they don't keep count, but since being granted a local waiver in 1999, they've added ramps only as needed
  
• In DeKalb County, about 10 percent of portables are accessible
  
  • In Fulton County, 29 percent are accessible
    
    Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton Counties lease most of their temporary classrooms, so ramps aren't required.
    
    "There isn't an ADA police out there monitoring enforcement. So, it typically takes a parent or someone from the community to file a complaint before the situation is reviewed," accessibility advisor Shelley Kaplan
    said.
    
    The situation in Gwinnett County is now under investigation after Fabiola Armitage filed a complaint with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights.
    
    If the investigators find a violation, they'll try to work with the school system first to resolve the matter. The county could lose its federal funding, which accounts for about 3 percent of the budget, or face a federal lawsuit.
    
    "I feel that Gwinnett County has been violating federal ADA laws for over 10 years now, and I don't want them to be doing that for the next 10 years," said Fabiola.
    
    Gwinnett County school officials declined our request for an on-camera interview because of the ongoing civil rights investigation, but a spokeswoman did issue a statement, insisting that the school was meeting Jason's instructional needs in that 7th grade resource classroom.
    
    The school system eventually agreed to move Jason's 6th grade class inside the main building, so he could stay with students in his grade level.
    
    
    How some counties in Metro Atlanta stack up
    Cherokee County:
    None of the portable classrooms in Cherokee County are equipped with a ramp. It is the school system's policy to accommodate all students who may have access problems by moving classrooms to areas that are readily accessible. About 25 percent of the 90 portable classrooms were purchased or moved after 1992.
    
    Clayton County:
    Of the 397 portable classrooms in Clayton County, about 50 percent are equipped with wheelchair ramps. Most of the new portable classrooms are leased, so they're not required to be accessible under the ADA. County officials say they make every effort to accommodate the needs of students. They can build a new ramp, if needed, in an hour.
    
    Cobb County:
    Prior to 1999, all portable classrooms were required to be accessible. But officials with the Cobb County school district were granted a wavier from state accessibility requirements by the Cobb County Fire Marshal in April 2000. Since then, the district has installed ramps only as needed.
    
    According to the state waiver, "When a need is identified for a portable classroom to have handicap ramps, it will be immediately addressed." Fire Marshal Bill Goodson notes that the waiver from the state's accessibility requirements doesn't relieve the county of its federal obligations under the ADA. He writes, "In the event we receive a legitimate complaint and it is investigated, your waiver will be rescinded. You will immediately install handicap ramps on all existing portable classrooms, as well as any future ones, with the understanding that no waivers will be granted nor entertained for the handicap ramps."
    
    There are 263 portable classrooms in the county. Thirty-five of them were built after January 1992, the effective date of Title II of the ADA.
    
    DeKalb County:
    DeKalb County has 651 portable classrooms, and 60 of them are equipped with ramps. More than half of the county's portable classrooms are leased. Buildings that are leased aren't required to be accessible. Under the Title II regulations, school systems are encouraged but not required to lease accessible space.
    
    The DeKalb County school system relies on a memo from the Assistant State Fire Marshal listing reasons for which school systems can be granted waivers from the Georgia Accessibility Code. In a 1999 letter to Georgia Safety Fire Commissioner John Oxendine, DeKalb County Superintendent James Hallford wrote the following: "All programs being provided in the school system's portable units are also being provided in the main buildings, and these main buildings are accessible. We also affirm, as required by the Commissioner's Rules and Regulations, that no individual with the need for such accessibility has been assigned to the current portable classrooms. If there is a need in the future to assign an individual to a temporary classroom which would require accessibility, the temporary classroom unit will be made fully accessible at that time."
    
    The waiver doesn't apply to federal law. The cost of building a ramp for one portable classroom in DeKalb County is about $3,000. Whenever there is a need for a student to be housed in a trailer, school officials say they will make the necessary modifications.
    
    Douglas County:
    Of Douglas County's 39 portable classrooms, approximately 24 have been bought, built or relocated after January 1992. Of those, 13 are equipped with ramps. School officials say they do not assign the classes of students or staff with disabilities to inaccessible classrooms of any type. If the need arises, entire classes are moved to accommodate disabilities. All of Douglas County's portable classrooms meet city and county inspection and state requirements.
    
    Fulton County:
    As of March 2002, Fulton County had a total of 300 portables, which the county has either purchased or leased, since 1992. Of these portables, 88 or 29.33 percent are now equipped with ramps to provide access for the disabled. School officials say they attempt to provide programs to handicapped students in fully compliant buildings, if possible. If a disabled student or parent or staff member requires access to a portable classroom, the school system provides an ADA compliant ramp for accessibility within seven days of the request.
    
    In February 1999, the Fulton County Board of Zoning Appeals approved a request by the Board of Education for a variance to the Georgia Accessibility Code, requiring temporary classrooms to be accessible by ramps. The Zoning Appeals Board added the following conditions: All special services schools must be handicapped accessible, at least one classroom for each grade must be accessible and if at any time a student, parent or staff member needs access to a portable building, a ramp must be built within seven days.
    
    Ninety-five percent of Fulton's portable classroom buildings are leased.
    
    Gwinnett County:
    None of the 1,051 portable classrooms in Gwinnett County are equipped with ramps. More than 700 of those trailers were purchased after January 1992, the effective date of the ADA.
    
    School officials say students who are disabled and require the use of a wheelchair are not placed in temporary classrooms because of safety concerns. They explain that by having physically disabled students in the permanent buildings, they are closer to the cafeteria, media center, school clinic, restrooms, and art, music and computer classrooms. In order to accommodate students in wheelchairs, all programs at all schools are made available and accessible inside the permanent buildings.
    
    School Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks wrote the following in an affidavit in September 1998: "It is the practice of Gwinnett County Public Schools that disabled students are not to be assigned to a class which meets in a temporary classroom or extracurricular programs, services or activities are to be conducted in a temporary classroom. None of the temporary classrooms currently meet the accessibility requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act." He goes on to explain that it would cost $4.55 million to install strobes, ramps and wheelchair compliant walkways on all portable classrooms. He also writes that the additional space necessary to add ramps would render many campuses difficult or impossible to operate.
    
    Gwinnett County Fire Marshal Rufus Tipton granted the school system a waiver from state accessibility guidelines because as he writes, "less than one percent of the school population consists of disabled children and there is enough classroom space inside the main buildings to more than accommodate their needs." Tipton goes on to explain that if the need should ever arise, the Gwinnett County Schools would make provisions for the physically disabled when necessary.
    
    The waiver does not apply to federal law.
    
    Other States
    Florida:
    According to the Florida Department of Community Affairs, all portable classrooms have to be equipped with at least one ramp. Under Florida law, classrooms that fail to meet the requirements of the ADA and other standards may not be used as classrooms after July 1, 2002.
    Tennessee:
    According to the Tennessee Fire Marshal's office, portable classrooms must be equipped with a ramp.
    South Carolina:
    According to the South Carolina Director of Facilities, schools are required to add ramps to portable classrooms on an "as needed" basis.
    
    

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