A federal judge ordered Manhattan School District 114 to put a 10-year-old girl identified only as E back into her neighborhood classroom, just one day before the start of the school year. The girl, who has autism, had been told by the district that she no longer had a spot at Manhattan Intermediate School, setting off a legal fight her parents brought to federal court as she prepared to start 5th grade.
Kelly and Michael Femrite filed a federal disability rights lawsuit against the district on August 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, a case now assigned to U.S. District Judge Jorge L. Alonso, according to PacerMonitor. Four days later, Alonso issued a temporary order requiring the district to re-enroll E and follow her existing accommodation plan, as reported by CBS Chicago. The order provides temporary relief while the litigation continues, with a status hearing scheduled for Thursday.
A Contested Transfer To A School An Hour Away
The dispute traces back to the end of the prior school year, when the district notified the Femrite family that it could no longer educate E at her neighborhood school and planned to transfer her to a specialized therapeutic day school roughly an hour away, per the same CBS Chicago report. The district argued in court filings that the therapeutic day school was an appropriate placement and claimed the family had previously agreed to it, a characterization the parents dispute.
Special education attorney Meredith McBride alleged in court filings that District 114 was excluding E from public school based solely on her disability, and that the district had reached out to institutions built for children with intellectual disabilities even though E has no intellectual disability, the station's report notes. E was diagnosed with a form of autism that presents school-day challenges, but her parents say she made significant strides after a period of homeschooling.
Recent Appeals Court Ruling Looms Over The Case
The Femrites' lawsuit arrives months after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled in N.T. v. Galesburg CUSD 205 that an Illinois school district violated federal law by trying to force a student with disability challenges into an off-site therapeutic day school against parental consent when local supports were available. The Seventh Circuit's opinion affirmed that therapeutic day schools represent a highly restrictive environment and that public schools must exhaust reasonable local classroom accommodations before removing a student.
That precedent tracks the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which requires public school districts receiving federal funds to educate eligible students in the Least Restrictive Environment, permitting separate schooling only when regular classroom instruction cannot be achieved satisfactorily with supplementary aids. According to guidance from Chicago Public Schools, Illinois adopts those federal mandates and grants parents procedural rights including due process hearings and judicial review when disputes arise.
Part Of A Broader Pattern In Illinois Schools
The Femrites' case follows other recent Illinois disputes over how districts handle autistic students. In September 2025, CBS Chicago reported that parents of a 6-year-old non-verbal autistic student in Greenfield were forced into a 50-mile daily bus commute after administrators said local facilities could not accommodate him, and the child was later mistreated by a substitute teacher at the off-site school. In July, a 9-year-old non-verbal autistic student wandered from a CPS summer program at National Teachers Academy before a CTA bus driver intervened, with staff unaware he had left campus for an hour while he was held at a hospital as an unidentified patient.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker also issued an executive order this month prohibiting state agencies from sharing diagnostic data of autistic residents with federal registries, directing state resources instead toward local educational accommodations and communication tools, according to a post from Northwestern University. The order reflects a broader state push toward keeping support local rather than routing students and their families toward distant institutions.
District Says It Will Keep Working With The Family
Manhattan School District 114 declined to comment on specific litigation details but said publicly that it will continue working with the Femrite family through the legal process while remaining focused on the best interest of the student, per CBS Chicago. District officials maintained in court filings that they acted in good faith, though they accepted the court's temporary order to enroll E.
For now, E is back in her neighborhood classroom for the start of 5th grade under Judge Alonso's temporary order. The status hearing on Thursday will determine whether the district must permanently accommodate her locally or whether further administrative and judicial proceedings will follow.
