(AP) – The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a trial court judge’s ruling that a suburban school district must enroll a teenager who lives within the unaccredited St. Louis School District.
The judges sent the case back to St. Louis County Circuit Court, noting that “contested issues of fact exist.”
The suit, filed on behalf of Jordan Danielle King-Willmann, is one of several stemming from a state law requiring unaccredited districts to pay tuition and transportation to send students living within their boundaries to accredited schools in the same or an adjoining county. So far students in three unaccredited school systems in Kansas City and St. Louis aren’t being allowed to use the law to transfer while the litigation continues and the Legislature debates possible changes.
The high court ruling noted that the trial court ruled in favor of King-Willmann without holding an evidentiary hearing, as had been requested by the Webster Groves School District. The district contended the trial court should have held hearings to settle several factual disputes and to consider the district’s legal defenses.
The district also said the transfer law violates the Hancock Amendment in the Missouri Constitution, which includes a ban on unfunded state mandates for local governments. But the Supreme Court ruled that the “school district has no standing to bring such a claim” because that ability is limited to taxpayers.
No arguments were submitted to the Missouri Supreme Court on King-Willmann’s behalf.
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