What would a lawsuit over redistricting/school assignment look like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Carving out Capitol Hill or another neighborhood for a controlled choice experiment would be ripe for an equal protection attack because property owners in the Maury district who would be sent to JO Wilson or Miner are being treated differently than families IB for Lafayette or Janney.

But already schools have different feeder patterns, look at Oyster, are there any other schools with the combination of IB and OOB lottery that are fixed? So, why would there being different feeder patterns a problem?

I am not advocating for any of these crazy choice patterns, just wondering how this could really be a lawsuit. And I do wonder, who on earth would pay for this?

A lawsuit based on change of boundary status for elementary schools would be a tougher row to hoe than one based on middle or high school boundaries, simply because there are so many elementary schools that it would be difficult for a plaintiff to convincingly argue that a family is losing close-in-distance access to a "neighborhood school." However, once you start tinkering with boundaries of middle or high schools, it would be very hard for DCPS to justify without replacing the lost access with another neighborhood school in similar proximity to the one that was lost. So, basically, the boundaries for middle and high schools are pretty dug in unless you're talking about moving the boundary over one street over here or there; or, if boundaries change more than that distance, DCPS could go about building a replacement school to compensate for losing access the historically expected neighborhood school. But then you have to ask yourself: why in the world tinker with boundaries in the first place if the price is spending many millions of dollars on a new "neighborhood school" that arguably wasn't necessary to begin with, absent the tinkering?

The more reasonable approach is to figure out what areas of the city are lacking a neighborhood school, and start building a new one where it's most needed. Or, as discussed in a million other posts, figure out how to make pre-existing schools better, so that discontented families aren't constantly trying to find an invitation to drive a long way to a better school than they've got in their neighborhood.

The problem with your analysis is that it is based on a flawed premise. You seem to be assuming some kind of "right" to attend a "neighborhood school." Where does that right come from? What DC statute would you cite in the complaint? DCPS does not have to justify changing HS boundaries. They could turn Wilson into all lottery tomorrow and there is absolutely nothing you could do to get the judiciary to stop it. Your recourse is through the ballot box.

Yes, in DC there is a right to attend a neighborhood school. I'm not going to spend time looking it up, but it's stated plain as day on the DCPS site.

Also: the cite to the DC Human Rights Act, earlier in the thread, looks pretty spot-on. There are several protected classes in there that would apply in an equal protection lawsuit brought under the DCHRA. But, separate from equal protection, a more convincing cause of action imo would be based on the right to a neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Same poster as above: I believe the earlier person is correct that DCPS could make Wilson a lottery-only school, and there could be no resultant equal protection argument. That's the most logical place to go, if you're DCPS and you want everybody to have an opportunity to go to Wilson, as misplaced a desire as that might be (would destroy the school, etc., etc...)

But it wouldn't stop a lawsuit based on right to attend a neighborhood school. If DC made Wilson all-lottery, it would have to create some kind of neighborhood access to Ward 3 families, whether to Wilson or some new local school.