Idaho § 6-2205 - Right of action - Standing to sue

§ 6-2205. Right of action - Standing to sue

(1) Patron suits against local school districts. Any person who is a schoolchild, the parent or guardian of a schoolchild, or the parent or guardian of a child who will enter public school in the next two (2) years has standing to sue and may bring suit against the local school district in which the schoolchild or potential schoolchild resides on the ground that the local school district is not providing constitutionally required educational services. These complaints may be known as patron complaints, and the persons who are plaintiffs may be known as patrons. The patron complaint must list with specificity the manner in which the patrons contend that the local school district is not providing constitutionally required educational services. No other person, except the state as parens patriae, has standing to bring suit against a school district on the ground that the school district is not providing constitutionally required educational services.

(2) Parens patriae suit against districts. The state of Idaho, through the legislature or through the superintendent of public instruction, may bring suit against a school district on the ground that the school district is not providing constitutionally required educational services.

(3) Patron suits against the state. No person other than a patron authorized to bring suit against a school district under subsection (1) of this section has standing to bring suit against the state, the legislature, or any of the state’s officers or agencies on the ground that the state has not established and maintained a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools. No patron with standing to bring suit against a school district may bring suit against the state, the legislature, or any of the state’s officers or agencies on the ground that the state has not established and maintained a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools unless the patron has first brought suit against its local school district pursuant to subsection (1) of this section and the district court has later authorized the patron to add the state as a defendant as authorized by this section. Any patron suit against the state, the legislature, or any of the state’s officers or agencies not authorized by the district court pursuant to this section shall be dismissed.

(4) No other suits recognized. School districts are agents of the state for purposes of providing a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools, and they have no standing to bring suit against the state for failure to establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools. Any suit brought by a school district against the state, the legislature, or any of the state’s officers or agents contending that the state has not established a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools shall be dismissed. There shall be no right of action by any person contending that there is not a general, thorough and uniform system of free common schools in this state except those authorized in subsections (1), (2) and (3) of this section naming with specificity the local school districts in which the plaintiffs live and with specificity the manner in which they contend that the public schools in that district are not providing constitutionally required educational services. Any other suit contending that there is not a general, thorough and uniform system of free, common schools shall be dismissed.

[6-2205, added 1996, ch. 258, sec. 1, p. 846.]