The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Stuart H. Smith Law Clinic at Loyola University New Orleans filed an appeal challenging the decision of the St. Tammany Parish School Board in Louisiana severely limit a disabled student’s classroom instruction time and restrict their interactions with other students.
The appeal aims to reverse a Louisiana administrative law judge’s decision and asks a federal court to end a practice that unlawfully excludes children with disabilities from full access to public education.
St. Tammany Parish School District placed a 9-year-old autistic student in a classroom alone and limited them to two hours of in-school instruction per day. Following this, school officials sent the child home for the remainder of the day without education services, supports or interaction with their peers in violation of their civil rights and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The student’s parents said the measure was not temporary or therapeutic, but an unlawful exclusion that denied the student their right to a free and appropriate public education guaranteed under federal law.
The case began in March 2025, when the Loyola Law Clinic challenged the policy through the administrative judicial process. After the administrative judge ruled against the student’s family, Loyola Law Clinic and the SPLC filed an appeal with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and sued the school district for disability discrimination.
