Families of children who say they were abused at the now-closed Northwest School of Innovative Learning are now taking their fight to the state level, adding Washington’s top education agency to a new lawsuit. The complaint, filed last Thursday in Pierce County Superior Court, accuses the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of brushing off years of red flags and leaving some of the state’s most vulnerable students in harm’s way. NW SOIL shut down in January 2024 after high-profile reporting raised alarms about excessive restraints, isolation rooms and chronic understaffing.
According to The News Tribune, the suit names OSPI as a defendant and seeks compensation and attorneys’ fees for two families identified only by initials. The filing alleges that OSPI repeatedly renewed NW SOIL’s authorization as a “nonpublic agency” and leaned on local school districts instead of directly investigating complaints, allowing harmful practices to continue. The News Tribune noted that an attempt to reach an OSPI spokesperson for comment was not immediately successful.
Investigations flagged years of problems
Earlier reporting by The Seattle Times documented a pattern of understaffing at NW SOIL, unlicensed aides effectively running classrooms, and frequent use of restraint and locked isolation rooms at the school’s campuses in Tacoma, Redmond and Tumwater. That coverage prompted a state inquiry and, according to officials at the time, a ban on new enrollments that came shortly before the school’s closure in January 2024. The reporting also showed that the program collected millions in public funds to serve high-needs students while failing to provide consistent therapy or academic instruction.
Attorney: state ignored warning signs
“It seems like an overwhelming number of complaints got to OSPI’s desk, and they did not take action on those complaints,” Whitney Hill, an attorney representing the families, told The News Tribune. Hill, who has represented students in special-education and civil-rights cases, is listed on the Cedar Law site as counsel for families challenging school and district placements. The complaint says the alleged failures by OSPI left students with immediate and long-lasting harm, including severe emotional distress.
Legal claims and oversight questions
The new lawsuit casts OSPI’s conduct as not only negligent but also discriminatory on the basis of disability, arguing that the agency’s repeated approvals let NW SOIL keep operating despite what the filing describes as foreseeable risks. A broader pattern of state-level oversight problems has been detailed by ProPublica and its co-reporters, who documented repeated complaints about the school and multiple state renewals of its nonpublic-agency authorization. In response, advocates and lawmakers have pressed for reforms that would give OSPI clearer power to monitor nonpublic agencies and require school districts and private providers to report restraint and isolation incidents more transparently…