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Charter School Parents Say De Blasio's Plan Will Violate Kids' Civil Rights

NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- First a rally and now law suits.

A source has told CBS 2 that parents of students at Harlem Success Academy plan to go to federal court on Monday to charge mayor Bill De Blasio with violating their children's civil rights.

The parents want to stop De Blasio from denying Harlem's highest performing school a new home, CBS 2's Marcia Kramer reported.

Parents are also filing two other suits against De Blasio with the state education department to challenge the mayor's reversal of a promise made by Mayor Bloomberg that allocated space for Harlem Success and two new Success Academy locations in Jamaica and near City Hall.

The suits come amid a flurry of lawsuits against the mayor. His friend and ally Public Advocate Tish James is suing to stop De Blasio from allowing any new charters to be co-located in public schools. James also wants to stop admissions lotteries for new charter schools which affect 4,500 city families.

Earlier this weekend, the mayor reiterated the Schools Chancellor's promise to look for different space for Harlem Success Academy.

"We're committed to making sure those 196 students are accommodated and that's something that we're gonna work out in the coming days," the mayor said.

On Sunday night, the Department of Education said that the administration was taking steps to resolve concerns voiced by some parents and that decisions were being made to set consistent, objective, common sense standards and to protect students with disabilities.

The mayor is expected to defend his charter policy on Monday. Aides said that the mayor wants to prevent the loss of special education seats.

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