Federal investigation finds Florida child care center violated disability law, reaches settlement
Plant City, Florida – After looking into how a Plant City day care center handled the registration of a child with a disability, the federal government and the center have come to a settlement. The goal of the agreement is to make it easier for children with disabilities to get child care and to make sure that federal law is followed.
The Middle District of Florida’s United States Attorney’s Office said that it has settled claims against Autumn Leaf Academy, Inc., a private day care center for kids ages 12 months to 12 years. The dispute started when parents complained that their daughter, who has Down syndrome, was not allowed to enroll in November 2022 because she needed a gastronomy tube, or G-tube, to eat.
Federal investigators found that the facility broke Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The results show that the day care used eligibility requirements that successfully kept the child out and did not make reasonable revisions to its regulations that would have let her join its programs. Officials decided that this behavior kept both the girl and her parents from getting the same services from the center.
According to the settlement, Autumn Leaf Academy must establish a written policy that says it won’t discriminate against people with disabilities and put that policy on its website for everyone to see. The facility must also train all of its employees on the rights of people with disabilities, the ADA requirements, and the rules of the agreement.
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The day care must also hire a compliance monitor, send regular updates to the federal government, and disclose any future complaints about disability discrimination immediately. The center will pay the child’s family $2,000 in damages as part of the settlement.
Alexandra N. Karahalios, an Assistant United States Attorney, took care of the case. Federal officials stressed that Title III of the ADA says that child care facilities must not discriminate against children and must make reasonable changes so that children with disabilities can completely and equitably participate.
