Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District, No. 1
Docket: No. 01-35450
Court: Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; June 17, 2002; Federal Appellate Court
A question of law regarding the interpretation of Washington Revised Code 49.60.400 has been certified to the Washington Supreme Court by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Proceedings in the Ninth Circuit are stayed pending the court's response. Initially, both parties had requested a swift resolution without certification to avoid delays for the 2002-03 school year, leading to an earlier opinion issued by the Ninth Circuit. However, after further consideration and requests for rehearing, the Ninth Circuit determined that certification is now the prudent course of action, given that a definitive answer is required for the appeal. The Ninth Circuit acknowledges that no prior decisions interpret the statute in question and expresses that the phrasing of the issue is not intended to limit the Washington Supreme Court's discretion to reformulate it. If the Washington Supreme Court declines to accept the certified question, the Ninth Circuit will resolve the matter based on its interpretation of Washington law.
Parents Involved in Community Schools, a Washington nonprofit corporation, is the petitioner appealing a district court ruling regarding racial tiebreakers in high school assignments by Seattle School District No. 1. The case is captioned as: Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, with various officials and board members named as defendants. Legal representation includes attorneys from Davis Wright Tremaine, Bennett, Bigelow, Leedom, P.S., and the Pacific Legal Foundation, among others.
The central legal question is whether the use of a racial tiebreaker in school assignments constitutes discrimination or preferential treatment based on race, ethnicity, or national origin, violating Initiative 200 (I-200) of Washington law.
Factually, about 70% of Seattle's residents are white, whereas the public school demographic is approximately 40% white and 60% non-white. The racial distribution shows a concentration of white students in the northern parts of the city, while non-white students predominantly reside in the southern areas. The school district operates ten public high schools, with varying quality and resources. Some schools are located in higher-performing areas, and there are disparities in educational offerings, test scores, and college readiness among these schools.
The School District has not been legally segregated but faces de facto segregation due to Seattle's racial diversity and housing patterns. To counteract this, the District implemented an open choice assignment plan allowing students to select from ten high schools based on preference, contingent on available space. The plan involves a multi-step process where students list their preferred schools; if their top choice is full, they are assigned to the next available option. If all selected schools are full, a mandatory assignment is made to a school with space.
In the 2000-01 academic year, five high schools were oversubscribed, with 82% of students choosing these schools as first choices, highlighting the issue of oversubscription. To address this, the District employs four tiebreakers for admissions. The first prioritizes students with siblings at the requested school, accounting for 15-20% of assignments. If oversubscription persists, a second tiebreaker based on race is applied, using self-reported racial information from registration forms. This racial tiebreaker aims to balance the racial composition of schools, designating schools as 'integration positive' if their demographics significantly deviate from the overall student population (40% white and 60% non-white). Students whose racial background helps achieve this balance are given preference for admission to these schools, leading to the current lawsuit.
The School District employs a 'thermostat' mechanism for its racial tiebreaker, ceasing its use in a school once racial balance is achieved. The racial tiebreaker influences approximately 10% of high school assignments. If all preferred racial category applicants are admitted to an oversubscribed school, remaining seats are filled first by a distance tiebreaker, prioritizing those living closest to the school. A lottery tiebreaker is rarely used due to the precision of distance calculations.
The Parents, a nonprofit organization of parents whose children faced admission denials based on race, cite two members, Jill Kurfurst and Winnie Bachwitz, as examples of the tiebreaker's effects. Their children, who applied to various high schools including Ballard for its Biotech Academy, were denied admission due to race. As a result, both were assigned to Ingraham High School, which presented significant logistical challenges, including a lengthy commute requiring multiple bus transfers. Unhappy with the assignments, the families chose to send their children to private schools.
Additionally, two other parents expressed concerns about their children potentially being affected by the racial tiebreaker in future admissions. In July 2000, the Parents filed a lawsuit against the School District, arguing that the racial tiebreaker violates state and federal laws, including the Washington Civil Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Both parties moved for summary judgment, which the court granted in favor of the School District, upholding the tiebreaker's legality in a decision issued on April 6, 2001.
The court highlighted its obligation to interpret Initiative 200 (I-200) in a manner consistent with both state and federal constitutions. It interpreted sections 1 and 2 of Article IX of the Washington Constitution as mandating school districts to provide equal educational opportunities, reduce racial isolation, and foster a diverse educational environment. Consequently, the court concluded that applying I-200 to eliminate the school district's integration plan would be unconstitutional and deemed I-200 inapplicable to the district's assignment strategy. The district court ruled in favor of the School District, leading to a timely appeal.
The Parents argued that assigning nonwhite students to specific schools constituted a 'preference,' a view supported by the district court. However, the court determined that I-200 did not prohibit the racial tiebreaker, as the term 'preference' has a legally established definition rooted in race discrimination jurisprudence that does not apply to the school board's program. This situation raises critical state law questions, including the interpretation of 'preference' under I-200, the relevance of state and federal law, the ambiguity of I-200's text, and whether Washington's Constitution requires or permits measures against de facto segregation.
Given the complexity of these issues and their broader policy implications, the court suggested that the Washington Supreme Court, which has not yet interpreted I-200, is better suited to provide an authoritative resolution. Additionally, the Parents claimed a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, but the court emphasized the need to prioritize state law in resolving the case before considering federal constitutional questions. Thus, answering the certified state law question is essential to resolving the appeal.
The Clerk of Court is instructed to promptly send to the Washington Supreme Court, under the official seal of the Ninth Circuit, a copy of the order and request for certification, along with all pertinent briefs and excerpts of record as mandated by Washington Revised Code 2.60.010 and 2.60.030. The excerpt details the Ballard High School's 'Biotech Academy,' a specialized program integrating science, mathematics, and language arts for students pursuing biosciences. The program has distinct admission criteria, including prerequisite classes, but does not guarantee overall admission to Ballard due to the School District's open enrollment policy. Oversubscription is not linked to geographic location; oversubscribed schools include Ballard, Nathan Hale, Roosevelt, Garfield, and Franklin, while undersubscribed schools include Ingraham, Chief Sealth, Cleveland, Rainier Beach, and West Seattle. An 'acceptable deviation' of 15% allows schools to have between 25% and 55% white students while being deemed racially balanced. Currently, three oversubscribed schools—Franklin, Ballard, and Nathan Hale—are considered integration positive, applying a racial tiebreaker only for incoming ninth graders, not for transfer students in higher grades. The School District revised its admissions plan during the lawsuit to alleviate student hardships, increasing the acceptable deviation from 10% to 15% and limiting the tiebreaker's application to freshmen. Parents argued that both the original and revised plans contravened state and federal law, and the district court concurred, finding the program did not constitute discrimination as it upheld the plan against I-200.
