The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction faces allegations of enabling child abuse at a now-closed private school for disabled kids.
The Northwest School of Innovative Learning, or NW SOIL, was a school for students with disabilities in Tacoma that shut down in January 2024 after an investigation from the Seattle Times and ProPublica outlined a lack of staff and licensed therapists at the school and excessive use of restraint, isolation and abuse. Families of students who attended the school’s locations around Washington list NW SOIL and various school districts that recommended students to attend NW SOIL as defendants across five different lawsuits, alleging that they played a role in enabling the abuse, according to Whitney Hill, a lawyer representing the families.
NW SOIL had locations in Tacoma, Redmond and Tumwater, and families have come forward naming districts like Tacoma Public Schools, the University Place School District and the Bethel School District…