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U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals
Mother Couldn’t Show Bias was Behind
Decision to Move Students to a Lower Grade
Dismissed: A federal lawsuit challenging an ISD’s decision to transfer two students from third grade to second grade after they had immigrated to the U.S. from their native Egypt in the middle of a school year. Omayma Eltalawy, et. al., v. Lubbock ISD, et al, No. 19-10832. Issued June 8. Ordered “not published.”

Background
The mother enrolled her two children in LISD’s Ramirez Elementary on Feb. 9, 2017, shortly after she and her children immigrated to Lubbock from their native Egypt.

The children were both initially placed in third grade, but with different teachers. But, about two weeks later, both students were transferred to second grade for the rest of the school year.

The mother claimed in her federal lawsuit against LISD and the school’s then-principal that her two children were doing fine in third grade — and claimed that bias against the children due to their national origin (Egyptian) and that the school didn’t want the children to take the upcoming third-grade STAAR exam (the earliest STAAR tested grade) was behind the school’s decision.

The mother also claimed that the school failed to take appropriate action to overcome any language barriers so they could remain in third grade.

The gist of the mother’s argument was that once the two students were placed in third grade, they were entitled to remain in third grade for the rest of the school year.

Testimony by the school’s then-principal and the students’ teachers was that the results of testing and observations, coupled with their lack of English language skills, warranted the students being transferred from third to second grade, and that the STAAR results, if the children had taken the test, would not have affected accountability ratings.

The mother appealed to the Fifth Circuit after the trial judge dismissed her suit against LISD and the school’s then-principal.

Upheld the Dismissal
A three-member Fifth Circuit panel, in this decision, upheld the dismissal of the suit by concluding, among other things, that the mother had not shown that the district did not comply with TEA regulations requiring districts take the appropriate steps to ensure that students transferring into the district from another state or another country are evaluated, which can consist of a variety of methods, to ensure that students are “promptly” placed in appropriate classes.

Thus, the mother did not have a right to expect that once her children were enrolled in third grade, that they had the automatic right to remain in that grade for the rest of the school year.