New Jersey Asks Appellate Court To Deny School Desegregation Case Appeal

By Sophie Nieto-Munoz, New Jersey Monitor

June 5, 2025

Attorneys for the state of New Jersey want an appellate court to deny an appeal bid by nonprofit groups and several public school families who allege New Jersey schools are unconstitutionally segregated along racial and socioeconomic lines.

In a 46-page brief filed last week, the state’s attorneys argue that it is premature for the appellate division to hear the case because a trial judge overseeing the dispute has not issued a final order. The record before the trial judge is too limited, and an appellate court weighing in now would result in “piecemeal review,” the state argues.

“There is no grave damage or injustice necessitating immediate appellate review,” the state said.

The case, filed in 2018 by Latino Action Network and the statewide NAACP, among others, alleges that school district boundaries tied to municipalities exacerbate de facto segregation across schools. They cited a UCLA study that found New Jersey had the seventh most segregated school system, with nearly half of all Black and Latino students in New Jersey attending schools that are more than 90% non-white, schools that are often mere blocks from predominately white districts. The plaintiffs note that the state has a constitutional duty to provide students with a “thorough and efficient” education.

In October 2023, a state superior court judge ruled that the plaintiffs demonstrated a “marked and persistent racial imbalance” in public schools, but said the lack of data did not prove their sweeping claim that the system is “unconstitutionally segregated because of race or ethnicity.” He declined the plaintiffs’ request for an immediate ruling. The plaintiffs appealed.

In Wednesday’s filing, the state criticizes the plaintiffs for failing to show what desegregation would look like or offering any “practical solution.”

The state’s recent filing came one day after the New Jersey Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank that supports school choice, filed a 20-page motion in the case arguing in favor of expanding a state program that allows students to attend schools outside of their hometowns.

Enrollment in the program has been virtually frozen since 2015. Lifting that freeze would be a cost-effective way to increase racial diversity and would not require any significant additional administration, they said, adding that districts could be incentivized to participate.

The program offers a “ready-made solution that can be implemented almost immediately,” according to the institute, which says more than 2,000 students are currently on waitlists. And school choice expansion could help integrate schools more quickly than redistricting, according to the brief.

“The state has already built the infrastructure. All that’s left is to unfreeze it,” the brief states.

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