Students With HIV Concerns Excluded, US DOJ Rules Arkansas School District Violated Federal Act

An Arkansas school district has been found to be liable for violating a federal act following its decision to remove three students with HIV concerns. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has cited that the Pea Ridge School District failed to uphold Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 2013 when it sent the students home on Sept. 13, 2013.

According to Arkansas Online, the students were part of the foster care system whose documents showed that they have families with HIV. They were barred from attending school for four days until they took HIV tests themselves. Thus, they missed school activities because of the exclusion.

Superintendent Rick Neal said that they only followed the advice of David Matthews, the district attorney at that time. There was a concern of HIV exposure among the teaching staff and students, THV11 reports.

Arkansas Online further reports that Matthews discussed during the board meeting that took place also in September 2013 that HIV, primarily a sexually transmitted disease, could be "spread in other ways." But these belong to the "less common" situation, according to the CDC.

But the Department of Justice sent a letter to the school district last Dec. 13 citing the violation of Title II. "A student's HIV status, actual or perceived, is not a permissible basis for the exclusion of a student from a public school setting," the letter written by its Civil Rights Division Chief Rebecca Bond stated, according to ADA.

Bond is also asking the school district to revise their policy on students with HIV concerns in written form. The said policy should not make school exclusion a requirement and its school staff must also be educated and trained about non-discrimination. The school district must also designate employees assigned to foster compliance of the ADA. The DOJ also ruled the payment of compensatory damages among the students involved, the NWA reports.