Making formal complaint against entire STATE

[ajasfolks2]

What I'm wondering is can there be a formal complaint made against an entire STATE's Dept of Ed as to 504s and LTFA in the public schools?

Would this go to the OCR regional office? 

Can you all help me think this through?

[guess]

504 for the individual is not really the vehicle for a complaint against the entire state for multiple individuals. However, a critical mass of individual 504 complaints sharing a root issue would stand a good chance of gaining notice that a systemic problem is in place. Whether or not the OCR's case processing would encourage them to turn the matter over to the Department of Justice is a big unknown.

OCR has the ability to open district wide compliance reviews. Obviously, this would not be a prompt, individualized investigation to resolve a single complaint which should be a factor for consideration. It is also one that is not in the control of a parent filing a complaint.

There is also an established reporting structure for civil rights issues into a larger database. http://ocrdata.ed.gov/. I have no personal experience with it but I do know of ed civil law professionals that do make use of it. With enough data it could show a probable cause for investigation. That is a wild guess on my part but not a completely uneducated one.

[ajasfolks2]

Thank you!  That gives me some help and things to think about.

[guess]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I intuit that what you're perhaps after is a top-down issuance from OCR federally to SEAs, and by extension to LEAs. Complaints will always be bottom-up driven by the individual. What your ideal target may be is the issue of an OCR Dear Colleague Letter addressing food anaphylaxis. It would be possible with a coordinated campaign involving, I would guess, a good amount of lobbying.