PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- Providence councilman David Salvatore wants a city review of how a vocational school could have violated the civil rights of the developmentally disabled for years by unnecessarily segregating them in a "sheltered workshop" where they were paid little or no wages for manual labor.
Salvatore on Tuesday called for a review of oversight at the Harold A. Birch Vocational School.
The U.S. Justice Department last week reached a settlement with the city and state over violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act at the Birch School and a state-licensed program where many Birch students were later employed. The sheltered workshop has been shut down and the program is being overhauled.
Salvatore says he wants to understand how this happened so that it never happens again.