Supreme Court Delivers Win for Family Battling School Over Disability Discrimination
In a powerful affirmation of parental rights and equal treatment under the law, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously sided with a teenage girl suffering from epilepsy and her family, ruling that a Minnesota public school district could be held liable for disability discrimination under a more reasonable legal standard.
At the heart of the case was a critical question: how much proof should families be required to provide when alleging that a public school failed to offer adequate accommodations for students with disabilities?
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for a unanimous Court, made it clear: schools must not be allowed to sidestep responsibility by hiding behind an impossibly high legal barrier. In its ruling, the Court determined that families like Ava Tharpe’s need only demonstrate that school officials acted with “deliberate indifference” to a student’s educational needs—a standard long applied to other institutions accused of disability-based discrimination.
Had the Court accepted the school district’s proposed “bad faith or gross misjudgment” standard, it would have created a dangerous precedent, effectively gutting protections under the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). That scenario alarmed disability advocates and constitutional conservatives alike, who saw it as another example of unelected bureaucrats erecting barriers between families and justice.
The family’s long legal battle began when they moved to Minnesota from Kentucky and requested that Ava—whose severe epilepsy made traditional school hours nearly impossible—be allowed to attend classes at night, just as she had back home. School officials in the Osseo Area School District refused, and Ava was left with only 65 percent of the instructional time afforded to her classmates.
A lower court sided in part with the district, demanding the family meet the elevated “bad faith” threshold. That ruling was later upheld by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. But Ava’s family took their fight to the highest court in the land—and won.
In a statement laced with clarity and compassion, Chief Justice Roberts acknowledged the immense challenges faced by families like the Tharpes:
“Together they face daunting challenges on a daily basis,” he wrote. “Those challenges do not include having to satisfy a more stringent standard of proof.”
The Court’s ruling in A.J.T. v. Osseo Area Schools, No. 24-249 now clears the path for Ava’s case to return to the lower courts, this time under a fair legal standard that respects the original intent of Congress when it passed laws to protect disabled Americans.
The Tharpe family’s lawyers rightly noted that educational inequality “often has life-altering consequences for children with disabilities,” and asked whether federal courts were forcing school-aged children—arguably the most vulnerable group—into a second-class status under civil rights law.
“It is inconceivable that when Congress enacted laws to combat disability discrimination, it silently singled out school-age children… for disfavored treatment,” the family’s legal team argued in their Supreme Court brief.
The school district, unsurprisingly, tried to block the Supreme Court from hearing the case, claiming it had acted reasonably and made efforts to accommodate Ava. But the Court saw through that deflection. Disagreement or “persistent efforts” don’t negate a legal obligation—especially when a child’s future is at stake.
Thursday’s decision is a resounding reminder: public institutions exist to serve the people—not the other way around. And when families stand up, even against powerful school systems, the Constitution is still on their side.