The parents of Ohio's 280,000 students with special needs should find it easier to ensure their children are receiving an appropriate education.

A federal judge approved the partial settlement yesterday of an 18-year-old class-action lawsuit filed against the state by eight students with disabilities and their parents.

"This is a huge victory for special-education students. It's as huge as DeRolph was," said Margaret Burley, executive director of the Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities.

She compared the case to the long-running school-funding lawsuit in which the Ohio Supreme Court ruled four times that the way the state finances public education is unconstitutional.

Because of wide disparities among school districts under the current system, some parents are forced to shop for a school that will adequately serve their children, which make up about 15 percent of Ohio's public-school students.

Yesterday's settlement requires the Ohio Department of Education to make sure school districts are providing services required by the federal government. It also attempts to replace an overly complex and obscure system, which many parents have found difficult to navigate, with a more transparent one.

Last year, the department reviewed 440 complaints regarding special-education services and ordered districts to take corrective action in 120 of them.

"The settlement should ensure that special-needs children get the services they are entitled to," Burley said. "A lot can be accomplished with this consent order. It's huge."

U.S. District Court Judge John D. Holschuh approved the partial settlement after a two-hour hearing, deeming it "fair, reasonable and adequate."

He noted that the "settlement achieves as much as could be attained if the case had not been settled" and gone to trial with a ruling in favor of the students.

Federal law requires that children, age 3 to 21, who qualify for special-education services receive a free and adequate education in the least-restrictive setting, regardless of the severity of their disability.

Under the settlement, the Department of Education must post on its Web site how well school districts are meeting those requirements, conduct more thorough and open investigations of complaints, issue findings within 60 days and ensure districts are providing required services. If districts fail to comply, the state agency will be responsible for doing so.

Susan G. Tobin, chief legal counsel for Ohio Legal Rights Services, which represented the children and their parents, said the settlement gives parents "the opportunity to be notified (and) the opportunity to be heard."

After the hearing, Tobin said a lot of parents don't know how to access services or how to get their complaints addressed without hiring a lawyer, an expense many parents cannot afford.

"This will make it easier for parents to get services if there is an issue," said a Marietta-area father who was among the plaintiffs in the case.

Scott Blake, spokesman for the Department of Education, said the agency has already implemented some aspects of the settlement.

"We want to work with school districts, and the ultimate goal is that students with special needs get the services they are entitled to."

Still to resolve are the financial aspects of the case, specifically whether the state is giving enough money to special education.

Tobin said "the state has never fully funded special education," leaving districts to pick up the balance. Some are not able to do so.

Burley said special-education preschool is woefully underfunded in Ohio, with the state providing only two-thirds of the costs. She noted that the state bases its funding on a teacher salary of $17,500 a year -- a figure set in 1989, when the program was initiated.

"Who is going to go through five years of college to work for that?" she asked.

ccandisky@dispatch.com

Still to be resolved is whether the state is providing enough money to fund special education.