School transfers denied, 3 suing

Forrest City mothers press state, districts for reversal

Three mothers of children living in the Forrest City School District filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Pulaski County Circuit Court seeking to reverse recent state and school-district decisions that prevent their children from attending Palestine-Wheatley School District schools.

Plaintiffs Erika Goodall, the mother of four children denied transfers across district lines, and Amanda Moffett and Stephanie White, who each have one child denied transfers, filed the lawsuit against the Arkansas Department of Education, the Palestine-Wheatley School District and the Forrest City School District.

The plaintiffs contend that the state Education Department and the two districts violated new state laws — Acts 1227 and 1334 of 2013 — that permit families to enroll their children in school districts in which they do not reside. They further contend that the denials of the school-choice applications for their children are in violation of state and federal civil-rights laws.

“Defendants wrongful and untimely declaration that Forrest City School District was exempt from both Acts 1227 and 1334 are both contrary to the plain and clear language of each statute,” attorneys George Rozzell IV and Kimberly Canova of Fayetteville wrote on behalf of the mothers and their children. “Additionally,

the disparate impact against black students of the law as put into effect by the Defendants is obvious and based upon readily available data.”

The attorneys argue for an emergency injunction to allow the transfers.

“Children across the state have applied for and been denied applications to transfer under Acts 1227 and 1334 without adequate and proper review,” they wrote. “Absent a preliminary injunction, these students will be forced to change schools as a result of the denials and other students across this state will be separated from their siblings who have been granted transfers under the School Choice Act of 1989.”

The lawsuit, assigned to Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mary McGowan, comes just over one week after the state Board of Education denied the parents’ request that it override earlier decisions by the Palestine-Wheatley and Forrest City districts that prevent the enrollment of the students in the Palestine-Wheatley system.

The lawsuit also comes at a time when there are related school-choice lawsuits pending in federal court — both at the district court and appeals court levels.

Deborah Coffman, chief of staff at the Arkansas Department of Education, said late Tuesday afternoon that the agency is reviewing the lawsuit and had no additional comments about it.

Act 1227 of 2013 is the state’s new School Choice Act that replaces the 1989 law. The new law permits parents to enroll their children in schools across district lines unless a district declares an exemption because the new law conflicts with court desegregation orders or a court-approved desegregation plan in the district. The act requires a district to notify the Education Department by April 1 of its exemption.

Act 1334, also approved this year, enables students who previously attended schools outside their residential districts to continue to do so until they complete high school, and it allows the siblings of those current students to attend schools in the choice school district — if the district has the capacity to take in the sibling without adding teachers or classrooms.

The Forrest City district claimed the desegregation exemption permitted by Act 1227 on May 14, after the April 1 deadline. It was one of 23 districts that claimed the exemption — all of which happened after the April 1 date because the law didn’t go into effect until later that month.

Forrest City claimed no exemption under Act 1334, nor did Palestine-Wheatley. Rozzell and Canova said that the Palestine-Wheatley district had the capacity to accept the students and said as much at the state Board of Education hearing.

In the case of Goodall, three of her children attended Palestine-Wheatley schools this past school year, but then she moved into the Forrest City district. She sought and was denied school-choice transfers back to Palestine-Wheatley for those three children and a fourth child who is to enter kindergarten.

Moffett and White each had other children in the Palestine-Wheatley district this past 2012-13 school year and sought to have siblings of those children enrolled in Palestine-Wheatley kindergarten classrooms.

“Each plaintiff received a rejection letter from the Palestine-Wheatley superintendent that stated that Forrest City had declared an exemption from the ‘School Choice Law’ for the upcoming school year,” the attorneys for the mothers said.

The attorneys complained that the state Education Board improperly allowed representatives of the Forrest City district to present legal arguments, contrary to the rules for the appeal hearing that should have limited arguments only to the parents and the receiving school district — Palestine-Wheatley. Under the rules, Palestine-Wheatley bore the responsibility of showing that it acted properly in denying the applications, the attorneys wrote.

“Palestine-Wheatley offered no proof and merely recited that it denied applications because of Forrest City’s exemption and that Palestine-Wheatley would like to have the applying children in its school system,” the attorneys said.

The attorneys argued that the state board declined to consider whether Forrest City had a valid desegregation-case exemption.

The state board “elected to ignore” the missed April 1 deadline for the exemption that is set in the new School Choice Act, the attorneys also said.

And the state board decided that Forrest City’s exemption under Act 1227 extended to Act 1334, which was passed to “grandfather” students and their siblings into the choice districts that students attended in the past.

Rozzell and Canova said that the state Education Board denied all appeals before it on July 8 without asking about what they said was “a discriminatory or disparate impact” on black students.

Black students are enrolled in greater proportions in 16 districts — which the attorneys said were not mandated to claim exemptions to Act 1227 but did so anyway — than in public schools overall, the lawsuit said.

While statewide public-school enrollment is 20.83 percent black, the black enrollment in the 16 districts was 58.19 percent, attorneys for the plaintiffs said.

A disproportionate number of black students are being denied, without review, their opportunity to transfer schools and take advantage of the privileges presented in Act 1227, the attorneys said, adding that the defendants are denying their clients rights to a free and suitable education.