ESL/BIL Court Cases

It was a Supreme court case that ruled that segregated schools were legal as long as each school for separate ethnicities were equal. The ruling also stated that the law would be in place for the next six decades. This court case sanctioned laws regarding Whites and African Americans from riding the same buses or using same facilities.

Nebraska passed a law stating that only English could be taught in the grade school. A teacher named Meyers taught German at a Lutheran church and was convicted because he was teaching German to his class. The court ruled "the Nebraska law unconstitutional, reasoning it violated the liberty protected by Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment" (Oyez 1).

This case was one of the first cases that struck down legal segregation in the k-12 schools. It was also the case that helped lead up to the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 for schools to be desegregated.

It was a Supreme Court case that was part of the Civil Rights Movement. It over-ruled the ruling on the court case Plessy V. Fergurson that rules schools should be "separate but equal". The court ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional and weren't equal. It set the stage for the recognition of minority groups and their rights, along with having anti- discriminatory legislation.

In this case, Rodriguez questioned the funding of Texas elementary and secondary schools since they rely on the taxes and supplemental revenue. In each district is a minimal educational threshold and Rodriguez believed it was underprivileging the students who lived in low income areas. The court refused to look at since their was no fundamental right to education in the constitution and the state was not discriminating towards the students in low income areas.

The San Frisco school system got close to 3,000 students of Chinese ethnicity. They were provided 1,000 supplementary English classes to help the children learn English. Lau and several other students did not receive any English Course. The court Ruled that it violated the 14th amendment and the Civil Right's Act because it didn't allow for the children to participate and receive the serviced they needed.

This cases established 3 criteria for the program that serves LEP students. This case was filed against the Texas Independent School District (RISD) because the parents of Mexican- American descent felt as if the classrooms were segregated. The first ruling stated that the school district was not in violation of the constitution. It was then appealed in 1981 and was in favor of the parents.

In 1975, the state of Texas was allowed to withhold state funds to local schools and districts for educating students who didn't have visas. The court ruled that schools must accept all students no matter their immigration status and were protected by the 14th amendment.

A school district in Colorado for over 10 years was operating a segregated school system which at that point of time was already stated that it was unconstitutional. This case had a big impact because it was one of the cases that the Court recognized that there was segregation in the northern school districts.

This case followed the Castañeda v. Pickard case. The court ruled that the schools have a responsibility to serve all ELL students and for them not to allow students to be in a classroom where they don't understand the instruction. The court relied a lot on the Castañeda case for it's ruling.