Schools Sued Over Access to Special Classes : Education: Woman says she was unable to get her daughter into an appropriate program in L.A. district. The ACLU action seeks to let parents identify students’ needs on enrollment forms.

Thousands of children are being deprived of special education services because the Los Angeles Unified School District fails to quickly identify disabled students and place them in courses that meet their needs, according to a federal lawsuit filed Monday by a civil rights group.

Acting on behalf of a South-Central Los Angeles high school student, the American Civil Liberties Union has charged in a class-action lawsuit that the district neglects to ask parents at the time of enrollment if their child has or is believed to have a learning or other disability, or has previously received special education services.

Because of this, students with disabilities--both subtle and severe--are often placed in classrooms where they cannot understand or keep up with the workload, said attorneys representing the student.

The lawsuit seeks changes in enrollment procedures and more teacher training in identifying disabled students, who under federal and state law must receive an appropriate public school education.

The suit seeks to have the district revise its enrollment form so that a parent can check off a box indicating that a child might have a disability.

“We aren’t asking the district to put a skilled counselor at every school site to take care of this problem,” said ACLU attorney Mark Rosenbaum. “What we are asking for is simple and can and should be done tomorrow.”

School district attorney Howard Friedman said he had not seen the lawsuit and declined to comment.

“The district has been receptive to suggestions on how it can improve the assessment of students and the delivery of services,” Friedman said. “If what the lawsuit is seeking is a change in enrollment, I would have hoped there would have been a dialogue before they put us through the time and expense of litigation.”

In the case of Chanda Smith, 17, who has a visual disorder that makes it difficult for her mind to process what she sees, the district did not ask whether she had ever received special education services when she enrolled in high school. Smith had received special tutoring in middle school in Los Angeles.

The mother’s repeated requests that her child be placed in a special education program were ignored by school officials until the end of her second year at Manual Arts High School, when she was placed in a 30-day program.

Frustrated with her daughter’s treatment and unable to penetrate the school district bureaucracy, Eliza Thompson said she “got out the Yellow Pages and started calling attorneys until I found someone who would help me.”

Represented by attorney Katherine Krause, Smith was given tests that showed her reading and math skills were at second- and third-grade levels and that she cannot process numbers well enough to tell time. Smith has spent two years in 10th-grade classes.

The assessment documents, which were released to The Times by her mother, stated that Smith suffers from “low self-esteem . . . due to not getting the help that she needed.” On Monday, the district agreed to enroll Smith in a private special education school until she is 21.