The Sacramento City Unified School District is being sued by advocacy groups that claim the district is discriminating against students with disabilities. The lawsuit claims the district segregates students with disabilities and denies them opportunity to be educated alongside their peers. "It's our understanding and belief that the district segregates approximately half of its students with disabilities into either entirely separate schools," said Carly Munson, attorney for Disability Rights California. "So, non-public schools or even public schools that only serve students with disabilities."Munson said the district maintains one public school campus where it only places students with disabilities. Non-public schools, she said, are not run by the district but similarly serve only students with disabilities. Other students with disabilities who are being segregated, Muson said, are on integrated public campuses but stay within a classroom of their peers with disabilities and do not get to interact with other students. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Black Parallel School Board and three students in the district. One of those students, she said, was excessively suspended last year. The student faced 17 days of suspensions, and the district, she said, failed to properly address them under the law. "The school district's required by law to hold what we call a manifestation determination meeting when suspensions reach the 10th cumulative day if there's been a pattern of suspensions. And the district did not do this with that in this case," she said.Munson said the student eventually became so distressed that they left school and tried to run into traffic. "This district's failure to see these kids, to serve these kids, to follow basic federal law is putting these students in grave danger and creating great stigma in front of their peers," said Munson.The Black Parallel School Board said the school district discriminates, especially against black students. “SCUSD routinely violates the rights of students with disabilities, particularly black children with disabilities, by denying them the services and supports they are entitled to,” said Darryl White, chairperson of the Black Parallel School Board. “Instead, the district tends to unfairly segregate and punish these children."Additionally, the school is in violation of federal law by not providing equal access to education programming, Munson said. She pointed to the school's preparedness rate of graduates with disabilities, which was only 4.1%. "That 4.1 college and career preparedness is a great example of how unequal the services are once students get segregated from their typical peers in regular education classrooms and the harm that comes from segregating them from providing them with unequal education," she said.Alex Barrios, spokesperson for SCUSD, said in a statement: “The District does not comment on potential litigation. However, let it be clear that we will not tolerate any form of discrimination in our schools and are taking these allegations very seriously. We will review the complaint once it is sent to us.”