January 2026: 

The MLO Minute: “Public Agencies Cannot “Contract Away” Their Legal Obligations” — 

By Dennis McAndrews, Esq., and Daniel Woody, Esq. — 

A recent precedential decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit positively impacts cases where children with disabilities are injured or abused in schools. In Montanez v. Price, the court considered whether a public institution could absolve itself of liability for deficient medical care by contracting with a privacy agency to deliver said medical care. Montanez v. Price, 154 F. 4th 127, 149-50 (3d Cir. 2025). In Montanez, the public agency claimed that because it had lateraled its responsibility to provide medical care to a private provider, the public agency could not be liable under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (“Section 504”) or Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) for the failings of the private medical group.

The Third Circuit emphatically disagreed, holding that a public agency cannot avoid its legal responsibility under Section 504 and the ADA to provide appropriate mandated services by hiring an outside agency to provide those services. The public agency is liable to oversee, supervise, monitor, and ensure that legally required services are properly provided to recipients who are entitled to those services.

 

The public agency (such as a public school district or charter school) may not—as stated by the court—“bury its head in the sand” and avoid liability under Section 504 and the ADA where the conduct of a third party contractor denies a child access to necessary services under Section 504 or the ADA:

 

• [I]f states could evade their statutory duties merely by outsourcing the operation of such programs, the ADA and Section 504 would become dead letter within state [agencies] . . . —an outcome antithetical to Congress’s “unmistakabl[e]” intent . . . . . Under the Commonwealth’s reading, a state could avoid complying with either statute and simultaneously insulate itself from liability simply by contracting out the operation of all its programs, services, and activities and burying its head in the sand. But as the statutory text and case law make clear, Congress did not design the ADA or Section 504 so that a public entity could forever prevent a qualified individual with a disability from utilizing a service, program, or activity.

 

Id. at 151 (internal citations and quotation marks omitted).

The Montanez case is critically important in three serious cases involving horrific injuries being handled by our office. In two cases (one in Pennsylvania and one in Delaware), a school district has asserted that it is not liable for serious harm caused to a child by a private school employee to which the public school sent the child. In the second case, a school district placed a child in an outside vocational program where the student suffered severe, life-altering injuries due to inadequate supervision when supplied with a dangerous power tool.

Under Montanez, school districts cannot avoid liability for their failure to provide proper mandated services by contracting those services to outside, private parties.

 

In our work on behalf of children with disabilities, we aggressively pursue justice for injured students as well as safe and fully appropriate programs for children with disabilities. In so doing, we look to hold all relevant agencies responsible for harm to the children we serve.

If your child is injured at school or by a school employee, or your child is not receiving the special education services necessary to obtain meaningful educational progress towards independence and self-sufficiency, reach out to us for a free consultation. Most cases are handled on a contingency basis with no upfront fees paid by families. We look forward to assisting your family and securing the educational rights of your child.