A New Door Opens: The Supreme Court Just Quietly Changed the Rules for Parents Like Us

By Aga — Ambitious Goals Advocate

For years, parents like me have walked into IEP meetings carrying not only binders and evaluations — but quiet fear.

·       Fear that even if the school fails our children, there would be no way to hold them accountable.

·       Fear that unless we could somehow prove that the school acted with "bad faith" or "gross misjudgment," we would lose before we even started.

This fear wasn’t imagined — it was real, because that's how many courts interpreted disability discrimination law for years.

The Old Trap: Bad Faith or Nothing

Until now, many courts used a legal standard that made it nearly impossible for parents to bring claims under federal disability rights laws (like Section 504 and the ADA) unless we could show that the school acted with deliberate bad faith or extreme incompetence.

This allowed districts to hide behind a kind of shield:

“We didn’t mean to deny access.
We didn’t intend harm.
We made our best educational judgment.”

And unless you could prove they acted with gross malice, the system excused itself — no matter how much harm was caused to the child.

The New Ruling: The Supreme Court Just Opened a Door

On June 12, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling that changes this.

In A.J.T. v. Osseo Area Schools, the Court struck down that old "bad faith or gross misjudgment" rule.

The Court ruled that parents do not need to prove bad faith to bring disability discrimination claims under the ADA or Section 504.

Instead, these cases are now treated like any other disability case:
Did the school discriminate? Did they fail to reasonably accommodate? Did they deny access?

The conversation no longer starts — or ends — with whether they acted in bad faith.

Why This Matters to Families Like Mine

When you live inside the IEP world long enough, you begin to see how much of the system functions through quiet procedural traps:

• Incomplete IEP teams.

• Delayed assessments.

• Missing accommodations.

• Shifting timelines.

• Refusing to respond to parent input.

• Procedural delays used to wear families down.

And when parents push back? We are told:

“File for due process.”
“We followed procedures.”
“There was no bad faith here.”

But this new Supreme Court ruling acknowledges what we’ve been living:

Denial of access doesn’t always look like malice.
Often, it’s quiet avoidance.
And now, the law no longer requires us to prove intent to find relief.

The Bigger Picture

This ruling doesn’t solve every problem.

• Due process is still complex.

• IDEA still has its own maze.

• Many barriers remain for parents trying to advocate without legal support.

But this decision removes one major shield that districts have used to protect themselves while children fall behind.

It affirms that disability discrimination can happen even when schools think they’re following their best judgment — and that families deserve real remedies when access is denied.

My Quiet Hope

As a parent walking this journey — without lawyers, with lived experience, learning to advocate while also healing — I see this ruling as both:

• A small legal victory.

• A powerful validation of what parents like me have known all along.

We don’t ask for special treatment.
We ask for access.
We ask for lawful support.
We ask for dignity.

And finally — the law is slowly catching up.

Wisdom of Lived Experience.
One ruling at a time.
One child at a time.
One IEP at a time.

@ambitious_goals_advocate