WILMINGTON — Incarcerated students with disabilities have not received special education services for years in violation of federal and state law, a lawsuit Thursday alleged.

The Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. filed the lawsuit against the Delaware Department of Education and Delaware Department of Correction, among others, in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.

The society claimed in a news release that there is “evidence of widespread failures by (the Delaware Department of Education and its Adult and Prison Education Resources Workgroup) to comply with the law, as these agencies continually deprive students with disabilities of any meaningful education while they are incarcerated.

“These students often must wait — in some instances for months — before they start receiving any type of educational services.

“Once they do, the amount of instructional time is woefully inadequate, sometimes only a few hours a week.”

Attempts to reach the Department of Education and Department of Correction were not immediately successful.

Delaware is required to provide special education and related services to all students with disabilities until the end of the school year in which they reach age 22, including incarcerated students with disabilities, as mandated by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the release said.

The society alleges that “These students all qualify for Individualized Education Programs —plans detailing the specialized instruction needed to ensure students receive an appropriate public education—based on their disabilities, including mental illness and learning disabilities.

“Yet (the Department of Education and its Adult and Prison Education Resources Workshop) do not provide the individualized instruction, behavioral supports, counseling or psychological services they require to make educational progress.”

According to Community Legal Aid Society Disabilities law program project director Marissa Band, “Delaware has been failing incarcerated special education students for decades.

“Throughout my 16-year career at (Community Legal Aid Society) we have encountered students subjected to educational deprivations by (Department of Education) and its (Adult and Prison Education Resources Workgroup) ,,,

“(Community Legal Aid Society) has filed numerous complaints that succeeded in obtaining orders for (Department of Education) and (Adult and Prison Education Resource Workgroup) to make changes.

“Unfortunately, after a few years’ time — when no one is looking — we again receive reports that (Adult and Prison Education Resources Workgroup) has reverted to failing to provide appropriate special education services to eligible students.

“It is disheartening that they have been told time and time again that this program is deficient, yet they do nothing. It is time for (Department of Education) and (Adult and Prison Education Resource Workgroup) to make real, lasting changes.”

Among other items, the lawsuit is seeking “an order requiring appropriate monitoring and reporting by defendants to the court and plaintiff on the status of compliance.”