Desegregation case heads back to court - State Accused of Failure to Integrate
Plaintiffs in a landmark Hartford school desegregation case claim the state has failed to comply with a court-approved settlement. The plaintiffs plan to file a motion in New Britain Superior Court tomorrow challenging whether the state has breached the settlement in Sheff versus O'Neill. They claim the state has failed to enroll enough students in new magnet schools. Minority students make up more than 90 percent of Hartford's school population. The lawsuit was filed in April 1989. In 1996, the state Supreme Court ruled that the racial segregation in Hartford schools was unconstitutional. The plaintiffs returned to court in 1998 and 2002 to argue that the state was not acting fast enough to desegregate city schools. A 45 million dollar settlement was reached in January 2003. The settlement called for 30 percent of black and Hispanic Hartford students to be placed in integrated classrooms by 2007. [more] and [more]
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