Williams v. California

Last updated

Williams v. California was a class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against the State of California, on behalf of California students, parents and other educational stakeholders, citing the substandard quality of learning resources at Balboa High School as a prominent example.

Filed in 2000 by the ACLU to address "savagely unequal" [1] conditions across California schools, the lawsuit highlighted a failure to provide adequate facilities, textbooks, and teachers for the poorest schools in the state. [2] Balboa students joined the lawsuit; and the case was named after Eliezer Williams, then a middle school student soon to enter Balboa. [3] The lawsuit was resolved in 2004, with the State of California agreeing to provide US$138 million for instructional material, US$50 million for critical facility repairs at nearly 2,400 state schools, and to reimburse school districts for future repairs of deficient facilities. Estimates indicate California may be liable for up to US$1 billion in reimbursements over several years. [4]

The "Williams Settlement", often mis-labeled "Williams Act", became a common reference in California discussions around education policy and procedures, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic compelled many urgent expansions of distance education and consequent reviews of education systems. [5] [6]

Related Research Articles

American Civil Liberties Union Legal advocacy organization

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". Officially nonpartisan, the organization has been supported and criticized by liberal and conservative organizations alike. The ACLU works through litigation and lobbying and it has over 1,200,000 members and an annual budget of over $300 million. Local affiliates of the ACLU are active in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The ACLU provides legal assistance in cases when it considers civil liberties to be at risk. Legal support from the ACLU can take the form of direct legal representation or preparation of amicus curiae briefs expressing legal arguments when another law firm is already providing representation.

Title IX United States federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally-funded education programs

Title IX is a federal civil rights law in the United States of America that was passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. This is Public Law No. 92‑318, 86 Stat. 235, codified at 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681–1688. The early legislative draft was authored by Representative Patsy Mink with the assistance of Representative Edith Green. It was then co-authored and introduced to Congress by Senator Birch Bayh in the U.S. Senate, and Congresswoman Patsy Mink in the House. It was later renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act following Mink's death in 2002.

Separate but equal Legal doctrine used for Racial segregation in the United States

Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guaranteed "equal protection" under the law to all people. Under the doctrine, as long as the facilities provided to each race were equal, state and local governments could require that services, facilities, public accommodations, housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation be segregated by "race", which was already the case throughout the states of the former Confederacy. The phrase was derived from a Louisiana law of 1890, although the law actually used the phrase "equal but separate".

DeVry University is a for-profit college based in the United States. The school was founded in 1931 by Herman A. DeVry, as DeForest Training School and officially became DeVry University in 2002. As of September 16, 2019, DeVry reported an undergraduate enrollment of 14,163 and a graduate school enrollment of 4,032, for a total of 18,195 students.

ITT Technical Institute

ITT Technical Institute was a for-profit technical institute. Founded in 1969 and with approximately 130 campuses in 38 states of the United States, ITT Tech was one of the largest for-profit educators in the US before it closed in 2016.

Michigan Civil Rights Initiative

The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), or Proposal 2, was a ballot initiative in the U.S. state of Michigan that passed into Michigan Constitutional law by a 58% to 42% margin on November 7, 2006, according to results officially certified by the Michigan Secretary of State. By Michigan law, the Proposal became law on December 22, 2006. MCRI was a citizen initiative aimed at stopping discrimination based on race, color, sex, or religion in admission to colleges, jobs, and other publicly funded institutions – effectively prohibiting affirmative action by public institutions based on those factors. The Proposal's constitutionality was challenged in federal court, but its constitutionality was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Cornell Companies

Cornell Companies (NYSE:CRN) was an American corporation that operated correctional facilities, contracting them to state and local governments. The company's headquarters were located in Houston, Texas. On August 12, 2010, Cornell was acquired by the GEO Group.

<i>Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America</i>

Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America was a case involving the City of San Diego's relationship with the Boy Scouts of America.

Advancement Project organization

The Advancement Project is a politically liberal American nonprofit organization that focuses on racial justice issues. The organization has a national office in Washington, D.C., as well as a California-specific office based in Los Angeles.

Balboa High School (California) school in San Francisco, California, United States

Balboa High School, colloquially known as Bal, is an American public high school located near the Excelsior District in the Mission Terrace neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Balboa serves grades nine through 12 as part of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD).

The Judge Rotenberg Center is a residential school in Canton, Massachusetts, United States for children with developmental disabilities, emotional disorders, and autistic-like behaviors. The school has been condemned for torture by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. Before the practice was banned in 2020, the school used to punish students by administering electric shocks through a device called the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED), which was designed by Matthew Israel, the school's founder. While it is now illegal in the United States to use electric shocks as punishment, the JRC continues to employ other means to inflict pain on students for the purpose of behavior modification.

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is a civil rights organization in the United States. Founded in November 1951 as the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, it is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization with nearly 50,000 members across New York State.

2010 Itawamba County School District prom controversy

The 2010 Itawamba County School District prom controversy took place in Itawamba County, Mississippi, and began when lesbian student Constance McMillen was refused permission to take her girlfriend to the Itawamba County Agricultural High School prom. As a result of a lawsuit brought against the school, the school canceled the prom. Parents were encouraged to organize a private prom, but they canceled it. A second private prom was organized and represented to be the official prom. Meanwhile, parents organized a secret prom to which McMillen was not invited and which most of the student body attended. The school district settled the lawsuit by agreeing to a payment to McMillen and adoption of a sexual orientation non-discrimination policy.

Pacific Justice Institute non-profit organisation in the USA

The Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) is a conservative legal defense organization in California, United States.

Title IX of the United States Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination "on the basis of sex" in educational programs and activities that receive financial assistance from the federal government. The Obama administration interpreted Title IX to cover discrimination on the basis of assigned sex, gender identity, and transgender status. The Trump administration determined that the question of access to sex-segregated facilities should be left to the states and local school districts to decide. The validity of the executive's position is being tested in the federal courts.

This article addresses the legal and regulatory history of transgender and transsexual people in the United States including case law and governmental regulatory action affecting their legal status and privileges, at the federal, state, municipal, and local level, and including military justice as well.

Since 2015, Township High School District 211 (D211), a public school district of the Chicago suburbs, has been the epicenter of multiple controversies surrounding its policies toward transgender student locker room access. D211 was the first school district to be found in violation of civil rights law on the basis of transgender issues by the United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR). A lawsuit involving D211's policies toward transgender students was the first legal challenge to the Obama Administration's interpretation of Title IX as allowing transgender students to use the locker room and bathroom facilities corresponding to their gender identity. Since January 2020, the district has implemented a policy of unrestricted locker room access corresponding to the gender identity of each student.

COVID-19 pandemic in New Hampshire Ongoing COVID-19 viral pandemic in New Hampshire, United States

The COVID-19 pandemic in New Hampshire is part of an ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. The first confirmed case was reported on March 2, 2020. A state of emergency was declared March 13, which included a ban on gatherings of 50 or more people. A small group filed a lawsuit claiming the order infringed on their right to assemble and worship. A judge dismissed the suit. On March 26, all nonessential businesses were closed and Governor Chris Sununu advised people to only leave home for essential necessities. On March 29, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) launched a dashboard with daily updates regarding the spread of the coronavirus in the region. From March 1 through July 3, the state had 5,857 cases. Over one half of these — 3,312 — were in Hillsborough County, which encompasses the cities of Manchester and Nashua, as well as surrounding towns. As of July 6, a total of 6,436 cases, 688 hospitalizations, and 409 deaths related to COVID-19 have occurred in the state. 81.4% of deaths were among residents of long-term care facilities. The current counts on July 27 are 589 active cases and 20 hospitalizations. In addition, the state reported 127,880 people tested by PCR and 20,455 tested for antibodies.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education Impact of COVID-19 on education

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected educational systems worldwide, leading to the near-total closures of schools, universities and colleges.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on abortion in the United States impact of COVID-19

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-abortion government officials in several American states enacted or attempted to enact restrictions on abortion, characterizing it as a non-essential procedure that can be suspended during the medical emergency. The orders have led to several legal challenges and criticism by abortion-rights groups and several national medical organizations, including the American Medical Association. Legal challenges on behalf of abortion providers, many of which are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood, have successfully stopped some of the orders on a temporary basis, though bans in several states have not been challenged.

References

  1. Verstegen, Deborah A.; Venegas, Kristan; Knoeppel, Robert (2006). "Savage Inequalities Revisited: Adequacy, Equity, and State High Court Decisions". Educational Studies. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. 40 (1): 60–76. doi:10.1207/s15326993es4001_6.
  2. "Civil Rights Groups Expand Landmark Education Suit" (Press release). ACLU of Northern California. 2000-08-15. Archived from the original on 2012-02-08. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
  3. Hull, Dana (2004-08-12). "Teen's goal in sight for fixing schools" (PDF). San Jose Mercury News . Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-09-12. Retrieved 2006-12-15.
  4. "Deal on schools lawsuit crafted". California Department of Education. 2020-06-12. Retrieved 2020-08-28.
  5. "Williams Case COVID-19 FAQs". California Department of Education. 2020-07-06. Retrieved 2020-08-28.
  6. "Plaintiffs Oppose Stay" (PDF). Retrieved 2020-08-28.