Mother Who Advocated for Disabled Son’s Educational Needs Retaliated Against by NYC Department of Education
On January 22, 2026, on behalf of parent Michelle Fraser, Peter Romer-Friedman Law PLLC, the Family Justice Law Center, and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the New York City Department of Education (DOE) and two DOE staff for violating Ms. Fraser’s civil and constitutional rights by falsely reporting Ms. Fraser to the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) in retaliation for her advocacy for her disabled son’s educational needs. As Ms. Fraser’s complaint alleges, this false report set off an investigation that involved an intrusive search of the family’s home, humiliating communications with schools and doctors, and intense questioning of Ms. Fraser’s younger daughter.
Parents of students with disabilities frequently undergo a challenging and protracted adversarial process to obtain appropriate educational services for their children from DOE. Ms. Fraser’s complaint alleges that rather than assisting parents and understanding that schools and parents may reasonably disagree over a child’s educational needs, DOE has enabled a pattern in which DOE staff regularly report parents to the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment (SCR) in retaliation for parents’ advocacy for their children. Children with disabilities make up more than 20% of the student population in New York City, but data troublingly suggests that disabled students represent a significantly larger share of educators’ reports to the SCR. School officials’ calls to the SCR frequently trigger investigations into families by ACS, typically an invasive and traumatizing process for the children and their parents. As alleged in Ms. Fraser’s complaint, this unlawful practice by DOE violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the New York City Human Rights Law.
Michelle Fraser, the plaintiff and mother of two children, alleges in the lawsuit that she was subjected to the DOE’s unlawful retaliation. She has spent years repeatedly—and successfully—challenging DOE’s refusals to provide appropriate services for her son, who is autistic and has epilepsy. Because of Ms. Fraser’s advocacy, every year since 2015 an Impartial Hearing Officer has ordered DOE to provide funding for Ms. Fraser’s son’s educational services. As the complaint alleges, in 2023, DOE officials decided they had had enough, and two DOE staff repeatedly tried to pressure Ms. Fraser to remove her son from his individualized, DOE-funded educational program. When Ms. Fraser didn’t capitulate, they reported her to the SCR with a knowingly false allegation that her son had not attended school for years. As a result of DOE’s retaliation, Ms. Fraser’s family was subjected to an ACS investigation that caused lasting trauma to her and her children.
“DOE repeatedly failed to provide an appropriate education for my child with disabilities. Rather than provide that education or remediate the situation, DOE resorted to retaliatory tactics against my family,” said Ms. Fraser. “Unfortunately, my story is not unique. It’s happening to countless other families across New York City. This needs to end.”
Educators make more reports to child protective services agencies than any other group of mandated reporters, but statistics show that educators are the least reliable mandated reporters. DOE has acknowledged that staff have been overreporting to the SCR. What’s more, parents of disabled children are likely overrepresented in educators’ reports. Unfortunately, DOE does not always provide—and sometimes refuses to provide—appropriate services to disabled students, and parents all too often find themselves in the position of having to engage in protracted and adversarial advocacy against DOE. As Ms. Fraser learned and alleges in her complaint, advocating for appropriate special education services comes with a real risk of retaliation from DOE.
Retaliatory reports like the one against Ms. Fraser can have devastating consequences for families. DOE calls to the SCR prompt intense ACS investigations that typically include caseworkers engaging in coercive tactics to enter and search families’ homes. And the harms of unnecessary ACS investigations resulting from retaliatory reports are not borne equally across racial and ethnic groups: 90% percent of ACS investigations involve Black or Latino families, and agency data confirms that these disparities remain with respect to reports involving children with disabilities like the one against Ms. Fraser, who is Black.
“Parents should be able to advocate for their kids’ education without fear that ACS will show up at their door,” said David Berman, partner and head of the New York City office of Peter Romer-Friedman Law PLLC. “This lawsuit hopes to end these retaliatory practices and allow parents to advocate for the needs of their disabled children without fear of punishment by DOE.”
“Ms. Fraser’s story illustrates a disturbing pattern: DOE is enabling staff to wield ACS to intimidate ‘difficult’ parents into dropping their concerns about special education services for their children,” said Sarah Ortlip-Sommers, attorney at the Family Justice Law Center. “The blatantly retaliatory report against Ms. Fraser for daring to advocate for her son was illegal. This lawsuit will hold DOE accountable for the harm inflicted on her family.”
“By law, children are due a free and appropriate public education that accommodates their needs. Unfortunately, getting such an education is often far too difficult, requiring significant engagement with DOE personnel,” said Richard Martinelli, partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. “Ms. Fraser’s story starkly highlights how bad things can get when families simply try to obtain the services the law requires. This lawsuit will show that the DOE needs to do better to make sure other families do not experience retaliatory ACS investigations, like Ms. Fraser.”
The Complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Case Documents
Media
Cayla Bamberger, Lawsuit accuses NYC schools of using child protective services to coerce ‘difficult’ Queens mom, N.Y. Daily News (Jan. 22, 2026).
