Civil Action 5281
Action 5281 is the name of a federal court order handed down by Judge William Wayne Justice in 1968, and modified in 1971 and 1973. This court order was the result of a lawsuit brought against the State of Texas by the U.S. Department of Education. The court found the schools in Texas to be segregated in violation of the U.S. Constitution. In the court order, Judge Justice ordered the Agency to take actions to ensure that the state’s schools were desegregated to the satisfaction of the court. Text of CA 5281 is available at the link: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/pmi/ca5281/5281.html.
Currently, the appeal by the state and TEA of two rulings related to the federal court order known as Civil Action (CA) 5281 resulted in lower court decisions being reversed in both and remanded back to the lower court. The 5th Circuit decision is available at the following link: http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/08/08-40858-CV0.wpd.pdf. Additional information was disseminated in April 8, 2010 at the following link: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/taa/legal040810.html.
The lower court rendered a decision, which was filed by the U.S. District Court, Eastern District, on September 27, 2010. The federal court entered an order removing all school districts except the original 9 from the scope of the CA 5281 order. A To The Administrator Addressed letter was posted on September 30, 2010 explaining the decision of the federal court and the removal from the litigation http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/taa/comm093010.html. Districts were required to enter transfers in the Student Transfer System (STS) through the end of 2009-2010 school year. The STS is now closed, and no further district reporting of student transfer is required through STS.