Recitals

Here is some history about this case.

There were six people who wrote papers to the court at first. Two of them were Cobb and Nettles. On July 19th, 2019, they said DCS was breaking the law and asked the federal court in Atlanta to stop DCS from breaking the law. The Plaintiffs said DCS was breaking the second part of the Americans with Disabilities Act. They also said DCS was breaking Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Finally, the US Constitution has an added part, called the 14th Amendment, that does not let the government punish people without following the law all the way. Plaintiffs wrote in their court papers that the Defendants were breaking that law too. Defendants do not agree that they were breaking any laws.

Almost two years later, three people wrote a second court paper to give the court new information. These three people were Cobb, Nettles, and Hill. They gave their papers to the court on July 1st, 2021.

DCS asked the court to look at all the papers and decide before any more work was done. DCS also asked the court not to let Cobb, Nettles, and Hill represent the whole group of Deaf or Hard of Hearing people who have the same trouble with DCS. The court turned down DCS for both on October 13th, 2022.

Both sides started to agree on some changes and decided to keep talking with a different Judge’s help. A trial was paused while the two sides talked to each other.

There was a special judge who helped the lawyers for both sides talk to each other. His name is Magistrate Judge Christopher C. Bly. Both groups of lawyers came to the federal courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia. They came to the courthouse six times between March and July of 2023.

After all these meetings, both sides agreed on how to finish the case. This paper explains what they agreed to.

DCS has agreed to some changes to their rules and how they work. Plaintiff asked for these changes.

The case has taken a few years to get to this point. At the same time, DCS has already made some changes to rules and how they work.

The Plaintiff lawyers think that this agreement is good for all Deaf and Hard of Hearing people who have supervision with DCS. They think this is better than asking the judge to decide.

It costs both sides a lot of money to keep working on this case. Both sides have decided that this agreement now is better to save money.

Both sides have made promises, asked for some changes, and made agreements that are listed in this paper. The lawyers for both sides worked to write this down. Both sides agree to follow what is written here.