It’s been going for nearly six years, but a family’s legal battle with the Lawrence school district involving an autistic child shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Diane Long-Palcher and Patrick Palcher filed a new lawsuit last month in Douglas County District Court, alleging the Lawrence school district illegally discriminated against Long-Palcher’s two sons by refusing to recognize them as district residents.

When the dispute began in 2000, one son, who has since died, was enrolled in an autism program at Free State High School, and the other was in special-education programs at Sunflower School.

The school district claims the family actually lived in Kansas City, Kan., and defrauded the district by falsely claiming the children were residents.

It’s the third lawsuit related to the dispute, and the surviving child no longer attends Lawrence public schools. To this day, the legal question of whether the children actually were residents has not been settled by the courts.

Joseph Hatley, an attorney representing the school district, said the cases have been in a “procedural thicket.”

• District lawsuit still unsettled (12-29-01)

The school district sued the family in Douglas County District Court in 2000, prompting the family to file a civil-rights lawsuit months later against the school district in U.S. District Court. The federal court dismissed the Palchers’ case and found in favor of the school district, but an appeals court later said the lower court didn’t have jurisdiction because the state case hadn’t been resolved.

In May, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to take up the federal case. Meanwhile, the initial lawsuit filed by the school district has remained open.

The family’s new lawsuit in Douglas County court contains allegations similar to those in the previous lawsuit in federal court.

“Defendants refused to recognize plaintiffs’ residency because defendants deemed plaintiffs’ special-education children as excess costs,” the lawsuit alleges.

Schools Supt. Randy Weseman said that as of Friday, he hadn’t yet been served with the new lawsuit.

“I was aware that they were going to refile this in District Court, but at this point I haven’t received any direct information regarding the filing,” he said.

Gregory Goheen, the Kansas City, Kan.-based attorney representing the family, could not be reached for comment last week.