top of page
Sunrise on Matterhorn from Riffelsee

Legal Cases

Lau vs. Nichols (1974) - In 1971, Chinese students filed a suit against the San Francisco School system, saying they were violating the Fourth Amendment by not providing them resources in order for them to be a master in English. In the Civil Rights Act, it states that discrimination is not prohibited. So, the court ruled that the school system needs to supply resources to these students. The school system got resources and money in order to support the Emergent Bilinguals in their district. This case impacted all of the cases to come that dealt with ELLs.

​

lauvnichols-5b31cd4ea474be00363c1caf.jpg
3232b6b8b21861a9e651f92133fc4b66.jpg

Lau Remedies (1975) - This law required schools to provide materials and resources for Emergent Bilinguals in their first language before they learn English. This also required schools to provide programs and support for Emergent Bilinguals. All of this was created after the court case Lau vs. Nickels to develop programs for Emergent Bilinguals. This was put into place by three rights through the fourteenth amendment, Title VI of the Civil RIghts Act of 1964, and Equal Education Opportunities Act of 1974. 

Denver vs. Keyes (1973) - This case was about how Latinx and African Americans sued the Denver School District for intentional racial segregation. This case makes everything harder to prove segregation. It has to be intentional (de jure) versus un-intentional (de facto). This cause many minority students to stay in the district, while all of the caucasian students moved to a different school. This case also made ti easier to segregate students because it was harder to take it to court. 

bus_ride_may_1_1981_david_cornwell.png
241e4f7462d303c2068488e254f43630.png

Castañeda vs. Pickard (1978) - This case started in Texas between the Raymondville Independent School District and Roy Castañeda. In 1978, this was brought to court and was ruled in favor of the school district (the defendants). When it was retried in 1981, it was ruled in favor of Roy Castañeda (the planiff). Basically, Castañeda was arguing that the school district was segregating his children by separating them into groups based on their ethnicity. The impact of this case was that this does not necessarily improve the educational environment or programs for ELLs, but does improve district accountability. So this means the ruling does not force schools to implement better programs, but it does open them up to legal battles if the needs of their ELLs are not being met. The OCR states that ELL's can't be grouped by race, ethnicity, or language.  This accountability comes in the form of a three-part assessment. The there parts include: "Bilingual programs must be based on sound educational theory, must be implemented effectively with sufficient resources and personnel, and must be evaluated for effectiveness in helping students overcome language barriers."

Plyer vs. Doe (1982) - This court case is about the Texas Schools districts denying foreigners to enroll in their schools because they were not "legal". They also withheld funds for educating these students. Through this case, the court decided that schools cannot ask for immigration documentation. The court also ruled that undocumented children were allowed to receive an education. 

b77083db8e375ddf29324d33580b94ae.jpg.png
a01_jd_09mar_aps-2-630x442.jpg

Yazzie vs. New Mexico (2018) - This lawsuit is where Yazzie files to sue the state for not meeting the constitutional responsibilities of providing students with supports. The court agreed and also found that the teachers were low-quality. They also stated that the teacher evaluation program was ineffective. There was a lack of technology, and many resources were not available to students. So, the court ruled that by April 15 of 2019 that New Mexico must establish a system to fund for education. 

Citations

​

bottom of page