ACLU Defends Students' Rights

On January 1, 2012, the Kansas City School District lost its accreditation. Now neighboring school districts prepare for a wave of students transferring to their schools.  Although they may attempt to block these transfers, the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri is set to defend the rights of students to transfer to neighboring districts.

Under a Missouri Supreme Court ruling, suburban school districts have the obligation to accept students from the unaccredited KCSD. These transfers are now being held up by proper tuition payments from one school district to another. If this persists as a roadblock, the ALCU will move forward with litigation.

In a letter to neighboring districts’ attorney, Duane Martin, dated January 6, 2012, legal director Doug Bonney states, that “those cost issues do not appear to impact the right of students to make an immediate transfer, and certainly nothing in the law gives the receiving districts an express right to reject the transfer requests while the districts involved sort out the funding disputes.”

While the issue is compliance to a law already on the books, the ACLU would also like to stress the underlying racial justice factors. A disproportionate amount of students looking to transfer will be from different minority groups.

The ACLU will follow up with all school districts involved to make sure the issue is handled expediently and without negatively impacting the education of any student hoping to transfer. 

To read the letter, click here.