A Slidell mother has taken the St. Tammany Parish public school system to federal court, saying district officials cut her 10-year-old son's school day to as little as two hours and kept him separated from his classmates during the 2024–25 school year. Her complaint asks a judge to overturn a state administrative ruling, order compensatory educational services, and require a stronger education plan for the child. The suit names the St. Tammany Parish Public School System and Superintendent Frank Jabbia as defendants.
The mother, identified as P.A. in court filings, says her son, A.A., is a fourth grader at Carolyn Park Middle School who missed about 20,737 minutes of instruction in 2024–25, according to NOLA. The federal complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, seeks financial relief along with a revised individualized education program. The family is asking for a jury trial and for district-wide policy changes aimed at limiting the use of shortened schedules.
The filing lays out a timeline in which A.A. was limited to a two-hour school day at Mandeville Elementary in September 2024, then withdrawn the next month and later enrolled at Bayou Woods Elementary, where he was put on a 140-minute schedule, according to Verite News. School staff allegedly required him to hit certain behavioral benchmarks before they would restore more hours. Even after improvements, he was allowed only four hours and 20 minutes per day and spent most of that time in a self-contained behavior classroom. The suit says the arrangement cut him off from electives, recess, and field trips and left him both academically and emotionally behind.
According to the complaint, the district cited “limited staff and resources” to justify the shortened schedule. The mother also alleges she was later banned from district property after she requested an administrative hearing. Southern Poverty Law Center senior staff attorney Lauren A. Winkler and attorneys from Loyola University's Stuart H. Smith Law Clinic represent the family. School officials declined to comment on the pending litigation, according to NOLA.
Why Advocates Say This Matters
Disability advocates and attorneys say shortened school days are a quiet way students with disabilities lose access to education, often without much public scrutiny. A 2021 investigation by The Hechinger Report found that most states do not track how often schools use shortened schedules. Some states, including Oregon, only began to rein in the practice after lawsuits and sustained public pressure. Attorneys in the St. Tammany case argue that reducing a child’s school hours instead of providing needed supports can, for many students, amount to a denial of appropriate services.
Legal Stakes
Under federal law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act guarantees students with disabilities a free appropriate public education, delivered through an individualized education program. When schools fall short, courts can order remedies. The U.S. Department of Education notes that compensatory services are meant to make up for services a student should have received but did not. A Congressional Research Service report explains how remedies under IDEA and Section 504 are applied in litigation and how courts weigh whether a district has met its obligations.
What Happens Next
The complaint was filed in federal court this month and asks the judge to vacate the state administrative decision that sided with the district, while awarding compensatory education and other relief for A.A. The school board has “about two months to respond” to the lawsuit, after which the court will decide whether the case moves into discovery or proceeds toward trial, according to Verite News. Parents and advocates say the outcome could bring sharper scrutiny to shortened-day practices in St. Tammany Parish and potentially in other districts watching from the sidelines.
