Student transfers lawsuit dismissed

A panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis on Friday dismissed as “moot” a lawsuit filed by families who sought to transfer their children out of the Blytheville School District to public schools in neighboring school systems for the now concluded 2013-14 school year.

In 2013, the Blytheville School Board exempted that district from participating in a state-permitted interdistrict school choice program for students. That was because the district was subject to a federal school desegregation order to remedy the effects of past racial segregation.

The families sued, alleging that the school district violated their constitutional rights by opting out of the student transfer program. The local district court denied the families’ motion for a preliminary injunction, and the families appealed to the 8th Circuit.

The appeals court dismissed the case because the 2013-14 school year is over and “nowhere in their motion do the appellants ask the court to enjoin the district from passing further resolutions opting out of the 2013 Act.”

“By the motion’s own terms, the time period in which the request relief would have been effective has expired,” the appeals court said. The order noted that the families never requested an expedited hearing at the appeals court level.