Lower East Side parents from PS 188 and PS 94, a school for students with disabilities, with legal assistance from Advocates for Children of New York, filed a formal challenge to the New York State Education Commissioner charging that the Department of Education violated state law in approving the expansion of Girls Preparatory Charter School, which shares their building, and didn't account for the serious impact that the growth would have on students, especially children with disabilities. The Panel for Educational Policy approved the school's expansion to include middle school grades at its February meeting.

The challenge follows Friday's ruling by the state Supreme Court that the DOE failed to accurately assess the impact of 19 school closures on students, and to consider community input. "These same violations have occurred in the DOE's decisions in the co-location of charter schools," parents charge in a statement.

At a press conference this morning at City Hall, Advocates' executive director Kim Sweet said, "The department has failed to follow the legal requirements that are there to protect the interests of the students at PS 94 and PS 188. Its actions show a troubling disregard for the impact of its co-location plans on these students and their community."

The legal challenge states that the expansion of Girls Prep would take over classrooms now used by students with autism; as a result more students with autism will have be bused out of the district.

Parents from four other schools demanded the DOE keep its word that students at their schools will not be adversely impacted by sharing their buildings with other schools: PS 30 and PS 138, a District 75 school, in Harlem, IS 302 in Cypress Hills, andPS 256 in Bedford-Stuyvesant.