Supreme Court rules for girl with epilepsy in opinion that could affect education access lawsuits

The Supreme Court is siding with a teenage girl with a rare form of epilepsy in a ruling that could make it easier for families like hers to go to court over access to education

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court sided with a teenage girl with a rare form of epilepsy on Thursday in a unanimous ruling that could make it easier for families like hers to go to court over access to education.

The girl's family says that her Minnesota school district didn’t do enough to make sure she has the accommodations she needs to learn, including failing to provide adequate instruction in the evening when her seizures are less frequent.

But lower courts ruled against the family's discrimination claims in court, despite finding the school had fallen short. That’s because courts in that part of the country require plaintiffs in lawsuits against schools to show officials used “bad faith or gross misjudgment,” a higher legal standard than most disability discrimination claims.

The family appealed to the Supreme Court. The district, Osseo Area Schools, said that lowering the legal standard could expose the country’s understaffed public schools to more lawsuits if their efforts fall short, even if officials are working in good faith.

The district also argued that all claims over accommodations for people with disabilities should be held to the same higher standard — a potentially major switch that would have been a “five-alarm fire” for the disability rights community, the girl's lawyers said.

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