A lawsuit filed on behalf of students and community organizations in Massachusetts argues that the state is illegally maintaining racially segregated schools, concentrating Black and Latino students in high-poverty districts with fewer opportunities.
Lawsuit Challenges Residential-Based School Assignment
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, challenges the state's practice of assigning students to schools solely based on where they live, which can replicate housing segregation patterns in school systems. This case is the latest example of efforts to address segregation and funding inequities through state-level litigation. Integration efforts have declined significantly since their peak decades ago when the federal government intervened in school systems nationwide, even before the Trump administration began releasing Deep South districts from court-ordered desegregation.
Plaintiffs include nine students and four community organizations from segregated school districts across Massachusetts, such as Springfield, Holyoke, Boston, Lawrence, Brockton, Lynn, and Worcester. These districts border more affluent, predominantly white districts where the plaintiffs cannot enroll.
State Response and Report Findings
In response, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education stated it lacks authority to change school district boundaries or compel cross-district enrollment. Spokesperson Jacqueline Reis said the state has invested in reducing graduation rate gaps and sought additional funding for high-poverty districts, adding, "Massachusetts leads the nation in student achievement, and we are committed to building on this progress."
A 2024 state advisory council report found that 63% of Massachusetts schools are segregated or intensely segregated, and the state education department has failed in its oversight duties. Schools with higher concentrations of students of color show worse outcomes in graduation and college matriculation. Jillian Lenson, senior attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights, which filed the suit with Brown's Promise, said, "It's not student potential, it's the conditions of their schools that drive these disparate outcomes, conditions that the state has maintained and perpetuated for decades."
Legal Demands and Precedents
The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk County state court, asks the court to compel the state to address disparities from residence-based school assignment. GeDá Jones Herbert, chief legal counsel at Brown's Promise, clarified that the suit seeks investment in evidence-based practices benefiting all students, such as expanding regional magnet programs and increasing resources for under-resourced schools, not mandatory integration. The state offers regional vocational schools and voluntary inter-district transfers, but a complex opt-out system and small program sizes limit equal access, plaintiffs argue. "Black and Latino students are blocked out of access to those opportunities, and that's unconstitutional," Jones Herbert said.
Similar state-level litigation has occurred elsewhere. In 2018, the Latino Action Network and New Jersey NAACP sued over residence-based school assignment creating segregation. In Minnesota, a 2015 lawsuit alleged segregation in Saint Paul and Minneapolis schools led to inadequate education for students of color. Both cases remain unresolved in state courts. These state cases arise as federal desegregation enforcement shifts. By the early 2000s, Supreme Court rulings limited tools for meaningful racial integration. Robert Williams, professor of law emeritus at Rutgers University, noted that state constitutions with equality and education clauses provide a pathway for challenging segregation from economic and housing patterns. "The government knows about it, but it's not the government that did it directly," Williams said. "These cases argue that having so many different school districts that align with housing patterns and having laws that say that you have to go to school where you live, all of those things sort of amount to government segregation."
