Roberts Court

Record on Education

In Parents Involved for Community Schools v. Seattle School District (2007), a plurality of the Supreme Court in an opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts agreed that “a public school that had not operated legally segregated schools or has been found to be unitary” (p. 2746) may not “choose to classify students by race and rely upon that classification in making school assignments” (p. 2746). Significantly, the Court indicated that the achievement of diversity was a compelling governmental interest only in the higher-education context. Effectively, Parents Involved precludes school boards from using race in the assignment of individual students. As a practical matter, Parents Involved makes it extraordinarily difficult for urban school systems to maintain racially balanced schools.

Two days prior to ruling in Parents Involved, in Morse v. Frederick (2007) in another opinion by Chief Justice Roberts, the Court held “that schools may take steps to safeguard those entrusted to their care from speech that can reasonably be regarded as encouraging illegal drug use” (p. 2622). Even though Morse leaves many questions unanswered regarding the exact scope of student free-expression rights, it does provide clarity on speech that encourages illegal drug use.

In Zuni Public Schools Dist. No. 89 v. Department of Education (2007), the Supreme Court upheld the U.S. Department of Education standards for the distribution of federal impact aid monies. Specifically, the Court found that the secretary could consider the population of individual school systems in determining whether states had programs in place that equalized expenditures among their districts.

Winkelman ex rel. Winkelman v. Parma City School District (2007) was the third of a trilogy of Supreme Court cases addressing special education. In Winkelman, the Court was of the opinion that the parents of a student with disabilities have rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that were separate and distinct from the rights of their child. As such, the Court decided that since the parents have their own personal rights, they can bring pro se actions challenging the decisions of school officials in determining appropriate placements for their children. Winkelman seems to expand the scope of IDEA litigation.

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