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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico's government reached a deal Thursday in a 35-year-old lawsuit involving services for special education students in the U.S. territory.
Rosa Lydia Velez sued the island's government in November 1980 accusing it of not providing her daughter with special education services as required by local and federal law. Velez signed a deal Thursday calling for her to receive $125,000 in damages.
Previous administrations fought the lawsuit for decades, but Justice Secretary Cesar Miranda said he does not view the suit as a strictly legal one.
"I always saw this as a social justice case," he said.
The government still faces other similar claims as well as a class-action lawsuit that has seen the island's Department of Education pay daily fines for not complying with federal requirements.
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