Help Cover Court Fees For Discrimination Lawsuit

Hi everyone! My name is Carolyn Bradfield and I have Usher Syndrome which is a rare genetic condition causing hearing loss and vision loss. I have worn hearing aids since a very young age and now my peripheral vision has significantly deteriorated over time to where I can no longer drive. As a mother of three young, elementary-aged children, one of the biggest challenges has been getting our children to and from school.

After bringing attention to our situation, the school district decided to provide busing in March 2020 when my oldest was in preschool. However, in September 2021 a new superintendent refused to continue providing this accommodation to our family. The school district is claiming they are not legally obligated to transport our children because they are not the ones with a disability.

We have been relying on a hodgepodge of family and friends to transport our children in the meantime but this is hardly a practical solution. As grateful as we are for their help, it is chaotic and stressful trying to coordinate schedules and availability of those who can help. This should not be the case just for getting our children to and from school on top of figuring out how to get to stores, doctor's appointments, extracurriculars, children's birthday parties, and play dates, etc.

It's hard to believe there is no law under ADA which clearly carries over an accommodation like this from parent to child. However, that hasn't stopped us from advocating for our family and hoping to set a precedent in busing policy which will assist others who may have a disability preventing them from easily getting their children to school.

We have reached out to every level of personnel within the school district and Department of Education, to a multitude of organizations like American Civil Liberties Union, National Federation of the Blind, Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and to our government officials from our mayor and congressman's office, up to the US Office of Civil Rights. In 2021, we worked with an attorney through Community Help Law Project, who wrote a letter of reasonable accommodation to which the district didn't even respond. It is deeply unsettling how our children and I seem to be in this grey area.

Since September 2022, we have been working to pursue our case through the court system. It has been an extremely slow moving process but we are now at the stage of depositions (calling witnesses to testify). Our attorneys have been incredible and have been providing their services pro bono however there have been some court fees that we have been responsible for along the way. We were now just told depositions can cost upwards of $10,000! As a family of five on a single teacher's income, things have been challenging to say the least. We would greatly appreciate any amount of support towards these costs. Thank you and we truly hope to prevail for all who can benefit from this.