Acknowledgments

The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch thank all of the students, parents, family members, teachers, administrators, superintendents, school board officials, advocates, and others who shared their views and experiences with us for this report.

This report was researched and written by Alice Farmer, Aryeh Neier fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch. Additional legal research and drafting was conducted by James Felakos, disability rights fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union, and Kate Stinson, intern with the American Civil Liberties Union. This report was edited by Jamil Dakwar, director of the Human Rights Program at the American Civil Liberties Union; David Fathi, director of the US Program at Human Rights Watch; Iain Levine, program director at Human Rights Watch; and Clive Baldwin, senior legal adviser at Human Rights Watch. Additional review was provided by James Felakos; Chris Hansen, attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union; Lois Whitman, director of the Children's Rights Division at Human Rights Watch; Joseph Amon, director of the Health and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch; Jane Hudson of the National Disability Rights Network; and Jennifer Leach, Head of Psychology at the McCarton Center for Developmental Pediatrics.

Abigail Marshak, US Program associate at Human Rights Watch, provided research and production assistance. Additional research assistance was provided by Anjali Dalal, Greer Feick, Lindsey Kaley, Joe Pace, Brian Ward, and Nate Freed Wessler, interns with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Grace Choi, publications director, Fitzroy Hepkins, print and mail manager, and Xabay Spinka, communications coordinator at Human Rights Watch provided layout and production for this report.

We express our deep appreciation to the leaders, staff, and volunteers of non-profit organizations, after-school programs, community groups, and other organizations who assisted enormously with our research.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch are grateful to the Open Society Institute for its support of the Aryeh Neier fellowship.