WRAL.com

State officials are investigating a complaint from a legal nonprofit that Johnston County Public Schools kept a high school student with autism out of school or away from their peers in violation of federal law. Disability Rights of North Carolina believes the matter is part of a larger pattern of mishandling the education of students with autism in the Johnston County school district, though the state disagreed earlier this year and is declining to investigate whether the district has a systemic problem. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction investigated the group’s claim of systemic issues earlier this year, when the group filed complaints on behalf of three other students at other schools. The department confirmed violations related to two of those three students, though it’s unclear what those violations were. The department told WRAL News that it is investigating the group’s newest complaint, but is not opening up an investigation into system issues because the complaint fails to demonstrate a “policy, practice, or procedure” that resulted in similar issues across the district.