Alva Review-Courier -

PEA RIDGE, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas school district violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by removing some students until they were tested for HIV, the U.S. Justice Department says.

The Pea Ridge School District removed three students, all foster children, from school in 2013 after it received documents regarding the HIV status of one of their family members. They returned to school several days later, before the district received the results, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (http://bit.ly/2i6pwlx ) reported.

A student's actual or perceived HIV status isn't a permissible basis for keeping that student from a public school setting, the Justice Department said. Rebecca Bond, chief of the disability rights section of the department's civil-rights division, said the school district should revise its policy on communicable diseases and parasites.

School district Superintendent Rick Neal said in an email that the district intends to work with the Justice Department "to put this matter behind us."

Neal said the actions were taken based on advice from David Matthews, the school district's attorney at the time. Matthews said he feared staff members and students could be exposed to HIV.

HIV is spread through sexual contact and shared syringes in most cases. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says ways that the disease can be transmitted include through blood, breast milk and other bodily fluids. In rare cases, it can be spread through biting, although there is no risk of infection if the skin is unbroken.