A lawsuit has been filed in federal court alleging human rights violations in Holyoke Public Schools.

The suit alleges the district fails to provide parents who speak limited English adequate translation services, including for educational documents regarding the children in their families.

“For at least two decades, HPS has routinely and repeatedly failed to translate important educational documents and communications to LEP Parents,” the lawsuit reads. “This includes notices of meetings, evaluations, proposed individual education plans (‘IEPs’), final IEPs, disciplinary notices, student and parent handbooks, anti-bullying information, notices of events,authorizations for release of information, health plans, nursing materials, documents related to extracurricular activities, progress reports, special education documents, and other routine communications. HPS also failed to provide trained interpreters for meetings between Parents and school officials, including critical meetings to discuss and formulate IEPs.”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Padres Latinos de las Escuelas de Springfield y Holyoke, an association of Latino parents in Western Massachusetts.

A number of parties are named in the suit, including: Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the state education board, Holyoke Public Schools Receiver Stephen Zrike, Holyoke Chief of Pupil Services Marianne Currier and principals of district schools.

There were 5,344 students enrolled in Holyoke Public Schools during the 2016-2017 academic year. Of the entire student body, just under 80 percent of students are Latino, four times the state average.

English is not the first language for 44 percent of students in Holyoke schools and about one in every four students are English Language Learners.

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education declared Holyoke a “chronically underperforming” Level 5 district in 2015 and placed the district in receivership and soon after, Zrike was named receiver.

A turnaround plan announced during the 2015-2016 school year introduced many changes including an extended school day, more individualized education plans and bringing in outside partners. Six key steps were outlined in the turnaround plan, including better engaging families as “active partners, repairing relationships and building trust in the district.”

Despite this goal, the lawsuit alleges district officials “have failed, and continue to fail, to implement translation and interpretation policies” to ensure an open dialogue between educators and parents.

The suit seeks, among other things, a declaratory judgement that state and local officials violated the rights of Holyoke families who speak limited English.

Holyoke Public Schools have referred all comment on the matter to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary. A request for comment from state education officials wasn’t immediately returned.

This is not the first lawsuit the district has faced alleging violations.

Late in 2015, a report alleged abuse of disabled students at one of the city’s schools. Parents alleged students in grades four through eight enrolled in the Therapeutic Intervention Program at Peck campus of the Peck-Lawrence Full Service Community School suffered physical and emotional trauma.

During such uses of force by school staff, a parent alleges her child had a tooth knocked out. Another student, who weighed less than 100 pounds at the time, is believed to have sustained a head injury after being restrained by three staff members. Several students say they had difficulty breathing while being restrained and suffered scratches and bruises.

On at least three occasions, a Peck teacher put children in a locked closet with the lights turned off, according to the report. The teacher denied locking the door, saying another child in her class locked the door.

Local and state officials launched an investigation following the claims of abuse at Peck. Lack of leadership, improper training are the among the reasons that led to the excessive use of restraints and force against students with physical and behavioral disabilities at the school, according to the joint findings.