Hall Pass: Your Ticket to Understanding School Board Politics, Edition #161

By

Ballotpedia staff

Welcome to Hall Pass, a newsletter written to keep you plugged into the conversations driving school board governance, the politics surrounding it, and education policy. 

In today’s edition, you’ll find:

  • On the issues: The debate over Texas’ Ten Commandments bill 
  • In your district: Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the classroom 
  • School board filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications
  • A unanimous Supreme Court rules students with disabilities subject to same standard as others in discrimination cases
  • Extracurricular: education news from around the web
  • Candidate Connection survey

Reply to this email to share reactions or story ideas!

On the issues: The debate over Texas’ Ten Commandments bill

In this section, we curate reporting, analysis, and commentary on the issues school board members deliberate when they set out to offer the best education possible in their district. Missed an issue? Click here to see the previous education debates we’ve covered.

The Texas Legislature passed SB10 in late May, requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms. 

Phil McGraw (Dr. Phil) writes the Ten Commandments requirement is beneficial and legal. McGraw says the First Amendment protects states’ rights to enact laws reflecting the moral and religious values of their people. He also says the displays in schools don’t establish a specific religion.

Steven Lubet argues the version of the Ten Commandments established in the bill tends to favor Protestant interpretations over Catholic or Jewish versions. Lubet says the display establishes Judeo-Christian religions at the expense of others in violation of the First Amendment.

Texas Bill Puts the 10 Commandments Where They Belong: In the Classroom | Phil McGraw, U.S. News

“And yet, that clear constitutional delegation of religious authority to the states is now being turned on its head. Across the country, including in my home state of Texas, where lawmakers are working on a bill that would require public schools to display the Ten Commandments, state legislation that reflects the moral and religious values of its citizens is being attacked – ironically, using the very amendment that was written by the Framers of our Constitution to protect states’ rights to pass such legislation. … Opponents quickly branded the bill as unconstitutional, but which religion does it establish? Islam? Judaism? Christianity? These are very different religions that each revere a version of the Ten Commandments, as do most Americans. Honoring our collective heritage is not the establishment of a religion; it is a reflection of our values.”

Why the Ten Commandments in Texas classrooms could become a dozen | Steven Lubet, The Hill

“Thus, the merger of distinctively Jewish, Protestant and Catholic texts led to a required plaque with at least 11 commandments. They are un-numbered, which obscures the unorthodox total. Although that may seem ecumenical, it again underscores the religiously restrictive nature of the display. Favored faiths are included, even at the cost of innumeracy; all others are not. … The framers of the Bill of Rights recognized that entanglement of government and religion can disrupt communities and alienate minorities. That is why the First Amendment provides there shall be “no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The purpose was not to diminish religion, but rather to insulate it from temptations of government power. … Everything might be bigger in Texas, but that does not justify legislating an unmistakably religious schoolroom display of 11 or 12 commandments.”

In your district: Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the classroom 

We want to hear what’s happening in your school district. Please complete the very brief survey below—anonymously, if you prefer—and we may share your response with fellow subscribers in an upcoming newsletter.

On April 23, President Donald Trump (R) issued an executive order titled, “Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth.” The order states that the federal government will promote the “appropriate integration of AI into education.” 

How is your district handling AI integration, and what’s one thing you wish it was doing differently?

Click here to respond! 

You can read our previous reader surveys and responses here.

School board update: filing deadlines, election results, and recall certifications

In 2025, Ballotpedia will cover elections for more than 30,000 school board seats. We’re expanding our coverage each year with our eye on covering the country’s more than 80,000 school board seats.    

  • July 8—South Carolina
  • Aug. 5—Kansas, Washington
  • Aug. 26—Alabama
  • Sept. 16—New Hampshire

Click here to learn more about this year’s school board elections.

Election results from the past week

Martinez Unified School District, Area 3

Voters in California’s Martinez Unified School District decided a special mail-in election to fill a vacancy on the school board. According to preliminary results, Brenda Leal defeated Britanny Ayala 73-26% as of June 18. 

The school board appointed Ayala in January to fill the Trustee Area 3 vacancy after the previous officeholder, Yazmin Llamas, was elected to the Contra Costa County Board of Education. Ayala’s appointment was provisional through November 2026, giving voters a chance to file a petition for a special election and remove Ayala from the board.

The Contra Costa County Clerk Recorder’s office verified in March that voters submitted a sufficient number of signatures to call an election. The board voted to conduct the election using mail-in ballots.  

The Martinez Unified School District, located in the town of Martinez, northwest of San Francisco, is the 305th largest district in the state with roughly 3,700 students.  

A unanimous Supreme Court rules students with disabilities subject to same standard as others in discrimination cases

On June 12, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) issued a ruling in A.J.T. v. Osseo Area Schools, Independent School District No. 279, one of four cases this term directly implicating K-12 public schools. A.J.T. concerns the legal standard students with disabilities in some federal courts must meet to allege discrimination from a school district. 

Here’s what happened: The case concerned the legal standard A.J.T. (Ava Tharpe), a teenage girl with severe epilepsy, had to satisfy to demonstrate that school officials in Minnesota discriminated against her based on her disability. A.J.T. sued the district in 2021 under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In 2024, a three-judge panel on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held that A.J.T. was required to show district officials acted in “bad faith or gross misjudgment,” a threshold the judges said she had not met. 

A.J.T. appealed the decision to SCOTUS, saying she should only have to show that school officials acted with “deliberate indifference,” a more common legal standard in discrimination cases arising outside of education settings.  

In a 9-0 ruling, SCOTUS overturned the Eighth Circuit’s judgment, ruling that neither the Rehabilitation Act nor the ADA require students with disabilities to meet a stricter standard for proving discrimination than disabled plaintiffs in other cases. 

Chief Justice John Roberts, whom President George W. Bush (R) nominated to the court in 2005, wrote the majority opinion. Justice Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor wrote concurring opinions.

History of the case: In 2021, A.J.T. and her family sued the Osseo Area School District, the fifth largest in Minnesota, after school officials declined to provide personalized in-home instruction during the evenings. A.J.T.’s family said her severe seizures prevented her from attending school before noon, and that she received fewer hours of instruction than her non-disabled peers. While school officials had said they could not accommodate A.J.T.’s evening schedule, they did provide other services according to her Individualized Education Plan (IEP), such as hiring additional paraprofessional staff to support her at school in the afternoons. 

A district court ruled that A.J.T. had not shown district officials had acted in bad faith or gross misjudgment. The Eighth Circuit affirmed that decision, stating, “a school district’s simple failure to provide a reasonable accommodation is not enough to trigger liability” under the Rehabilitation Act or the ADA. 

Why it matters: SCOTUS’ ruling resolves a conflict in the way circuit courts handled discrimination cases involving students with disabilities, potentially making it easier for families to sue districts. Roberts wrote that students with disabilities “face daunting challenges on a daily basis. We hold today that those challenges do not include having to satisfy a more stringent standard of proof than other plaintiffs to establish discrimination” under the federal statutes.  

  • Before SCOTUS’ ruling in A.J.T., the Eighth Circuit, along with four other circuit courts, required plaintiffs suing for damages on the basis of discrimination in public schools to meet the “bad faith or gross misjudgment” standard. This standard applied to 22 million students in 22 states, according to lawyers for the Osseo Area School District. 
  • In most other courts, students with disabilities were generally required to demonstrate that discrimination occurred because of “deliberate indifference” to receive damages. 

Go deeper: The Eighth Circuit applied the heightened standard for the first time in 1980 in Monahan v. Nebraska. In that case, the Eighth District found that although a district failed to provide a student a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), as required by law, it could not be held liable for disability discrimination because its actions weren’t done in “bad faith or gross misjudgment.” The court said the standard struck “a proper balance between the rights of handicapped children, the responsibilities of state educational officials, and the competence of courts to make judgments in technical fields.”

  • In A.J.T., the Osseo Area School District argued, following Monahan, that school districts are not liable for “nondiscriminatory, good-faith denials of requested accommodations” under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Reactions:

  • The American Civil Liberties Union’s Disability Rights Program Director Zoe Brennan-Krohn said, “Disability discrimination is often the result of indifference and carelessness, and the Supreme Court today reaffirmed that discrimination, even if not motivated by malice, is illegal in schools. We’re glad the Supreme Court affirmed schoolchildren don’t have to meet a higher legal standard to vindicate their rights.”
  • National School Attorneys Association Chair ​​Andrew Manna said, “When educators have designed special education services specific to a child’s needs, the concept of ‘discrimination’ just doesn’t fit. Courts are likely to continue to struggle to apply the concept, and these claims continue to be filed frequently—simultaneously with IDEA administrative complaints.” 

What happens next: A.J.T.’s case will return to the Eighth Circuit, where the judges will reexamine the case in light of SCOTUS’ ruling. 

Education on the 2024-2025 docket: 

  • Along with A.J.T., the other K-12 education cases the court accepted this term are Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, Mahmoud v. Taylor, and Federal Communications Commission v. Consumers’ Research. SCOTUS issued a 4-4 decision in Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board on May 22. Click here to read our summary of the ruling. 
  • SCOTUS is expected to decide Mahmoud and Federal Communications Commission in the coming weeks. Mahmoud concerns religious exercise rights and elementary school education on gender and sexuality, while Federal Communications Commission concerns the constitutionality of a federal program that subsidizes district internet and telephone services. Read our deep dive into Mahmoud here before SCOTUS issues its ruling.

Click here to learn more about SCOTUS’ October 2024-2025 term. 

Extracurricular: education news from around the web

This section contains links to recent education-related articles from around the internet. If you know of a story we should be reading, reply to this email to share it with us! 

Take our Candidate Connection survey to reach voters in your district

Today, we’re looking at survey responses from school board candidates in Washington and Kansas. 

Nathan Hunter is one of seven candidates running in the general election for three at-large seats on the Goddard Unified School District 265 school board, in Kansas. Incumbent Ruth Wood is also running. The Aug. 5 primary was cancelled because not enough candidates filed to run. All candidates advanced to the Nov. 4 general election.

Goddard is the 16th largest district in the state, with roughly 6,200 students. 

Incumbent Joe Mizrahi is one of five candidates running in the Aug. 5 primary for Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors District 4, in Washington. The two candidates with the most votes will advance to the Nov. 4 general election. 

Seattle Public Schools is the largest district in the state, with roughly 60,000 students. 

Here’s how Hunter answered the question, “How will you build relationships with members of the broader community? Which groups, organizations, stakeholders will you specifically target?”

“Being an active presence in the community and not just at board meetings. This begins with sharing my email for all constituents to contact me (a process that is currently not in effect in USD 265). Open communication with parents, teachers, and support staff is also crucial. Families often attend sporting and community events, and these are great ways for a school board member to be present and active.”

Click here to read the rest of Hunter’s responses. 

Here’s how Mizrahi answered the question, “How will you build relationships with members of the broader community? Which groups, organizations, stakeholders will you specifically target?”

“Building relationships with the broader community has been at the heart of my work; both as a school board director and as a lifelong labor organizer. I believe trust is built through consistency, transparency, and a willingness to show up, even in hard conversations. That means not waiting for people to come to us, but actively going to where they are, whether that’s community centers, union halls, cultural organizations, or school events.

Specifically, I prioritize connecting with families furthest from educational justice, including immigrant and refugee communities, communities of color, and low-wage working families. I’ve worked closely with parent and student advocacy groups, bilingual education coalitions, and unions representing educators, classified staff, and school workers. I also engage with youth-led organizations because I believe student voice should shape the future of our district. As someone who co-leads Washington’s largest private sector union, I know how to bring diverse stakeholders together around a shared vision; and I bring that same approach to the school board: listen first, stay grounded in values, and build power through relationships.”

Click here to read the rest of Mizrahi’s responses. 

In the 2024 election cycle, 6,539 candidates completed the survey, including over 500 school board candidates. 

If you’re a school board candidate or incumbent, click here to take the survey.

The survey contains over 30 questions, and you can choose the ones you feel will best represent your views to voters. If you complete the survey, a box with your answers will display on your Ballotpedia profile. Your responses will also appear in our sample ballot.

And if you’re not running for school board, but there is an election in your community this year, share the link with the candidates and urge them to take the survey!