U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments in school disability discrimination case

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on Monday in a case that will consider the standards for lawsuits against school districts for disability claims.

The case that pits a teenage girl named Ava Tharpe against her Minnesota school district. It began after the Tharpe family moved into the district from Kentucky and struggled to get an accommodation for her disability.

“One of the problems Ava has is that she has a lot of these, epileptic seizures in the morning. And so in Kentucky, she had been able to start her school day later,” said Roman Martinez, a lawyer for the family. “The Minnesota school said they weren’t going to give that to her.”

The school district said in its legal brief that it made persistent efforts to accommodate Ava. But after lengthy fight, her parents filed a lawsuit against the district, alleging that it had violated disability rights laws.

In lower court rulings, Ava won on some of those claims but others were dismissed, finding that because the claims were related to education, they had to meet a certain standard and prove that the school district had acted in “bad faith.”

The question before the high court is should that higher standard apply.

“This higher standard makes it harder for families to show a violation under Section 504 or the Americans with Disabilities Act,” said Caroline Wick, Acting Director of the American University Disability Rights Law Clinic.

Martinez said the case could also impact people with disabilities outside schools because the district expanded their arguments last month.

“What the district is saying is that any plaintiff under these laws, needs to satisfy that extremely hard, you know, extremely high standard in order to get relief. So if they win the case, it would revolutionize disability law,” he said.

The case will be heard by the Supreme Court at 10 a.m. ET on Monday, April 28.

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