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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-15-25 Correspondence - Disability Rights MT - Disability Rights Montana wins in court for disabled kids, again!From:Disability Rights Montana - Growth Rings To:Bozeman Public Comment Subject:[EXTERNAL]Disability Rights Montana wins in court for disabled kids, again! Date:Thursday, December 11, 2025 8:06:04 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Every paid subscription supports Disability Rights Montana’s work across Montana. Federal funding is nowhere near sufficient to meet the advocacy and culture change work that is needed. You can help fund the future you want to see! HB 393 podcast.mp4 Watch now Disability Rights Montana wins incourt for disabled kids, again! Unconstitutional scheme to strip money from local schools stopped bycourt READ IN APP Disability Rights Montana is Montana’s statewide disability civil rights law firm. We have a federal mandate to protect and advocate for the human, legal, and civil rights of Montanans with disabilities, and we are good at it. On the heals of doubling the years of high school available to disabled students a few months ago, I am very proud to bring you yet another victory for Montana’s students with disabilities. We filed a lawsuit to strike down a destructive and misleading “disability education savings account” program that was created under the guise of helping students with disabilities. Our analysis showed this program illegally pulls money from schools without providing enough money to truly meet the needs of students with disabilities. We explained this to the legislature when they were considering this proposal in HB 393 during the 2023 legislative session, but they did not heed our warning. We were left with no other option than to use the courts to stop its implementation. “HB 393 was a lose-lose for students with disabilities,” said Tal Goldin, Director of Advocacy and attorney for Disability Rights Montana. “The Court’s decision today prevents legislative overreach, stopping one attempted incursion into public school dollars and protecting students with disabilities DEC 12 from losing access to free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment.” This case was brought to you by Disability Rights Montana and our co-counsel Upper Seven law. This litigation team represented Disability Rights Montana as an associational plaintiff on behalf of all students with disabilities across the state as well as the Montana Quality Education Coalition, a coalition representing 100 Montana school districts and multiple statewide educational professional organizations. “Siphoning public school money to unaccountable individual accounts is unconstitutional, not to mention foolish. But the decision here doesn’t even address the misuse of public money because the legislature failed in the first instance to correctly appropriate funding for HB 393. And that is unconstitutional enough to stop it in its tracks,” said Rylee Sommers- Flanagan, founder and Executive Director of Upper Seven Law, which represents plaintiffs. “Today the Court has affirmed the Montana Constitution’s decisive public education guarantee, which embodies and makes possible the American dream, ensuring that all Montana children will have access to public education and the opportunities that open up to the hard working and well educated.” We are very fortunate to have such powerful friends and advocacy partners in our work to enforce the rights of Montanans with disabilities. Learn more about the case in this week’s podcast interview with Disability Rights Montana Director of Advocacy, Tal Goldin. (click on the picture above) David David Carlson, J.D. Executive Director Disability Rights Montana You’re currently a free subscriber to Life Beyond Compliance. Upgrading to paid subscriptions supports Disability Rights Montana’s work across Montana. Federal funding is no where near sufficient to meet the advocacy and culture change work that is needed. You can help fund the future you want to see! Upgrade to paid LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2025 Disability Rights Montana1022 Chestnut Street, Helena, MT 59601 Unsubscribe