Boston parent group again sues over city's exam school admissions policy

A coalition of parents is suing the Boston School Committee and superintendent over the district's current exam school admissions policy, arguing the system is "racially discriminatory" against white students.

The Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence is challenging the policy on behalf of parents whose children were denied admission to one of Boston's exam schools or plan to apply in future years. In a complaint filed in federal court on Thursday, the group alleges the school district's governing body "designed and implemented the tier system as a racial proxy to reduce the number of white students admitted to the exam schools."

This is the second attempt by the parent-led group to challenge Boston's admissions policy for the competitive exam schools — which are part of the public school system — after mounting an unsuccessful effort not too long ago.

Boston Public Schools has been using a tiered system of admissions to its three exam schools — Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy and John D. O'Bryant School of Math and Science — since 2021.

The policy groups applicants by tier based on the socioeconomic status of their home neighborhood. In addition to factors like grades and entrance exam scores, the policy also factors in a bonus point system that considers factors including if a student is in foster care, is homeless or attends a school with a high concentration of low-income children.

The plaintiffs argue that the school committee uses the geographic tier system as a "racial proxy" so it can admit more Black and Hispanic students and fewer white and Asian students. In particular, they allege the policy results in "clustering most white students in one 'tier' where they compete only against each other for exam school seats," resulting in a lowered admission rate relative to their share of the total applicant pool.

According to the complaint, white students made up 40% of the students who were admitted to one of the BPS exam schools in the 2019-2020 school year. Under the new tier and bonus point system, the share of white students who were admitted dropped to roughly 25% by the 2024-25 school year, the complaint states.

"The Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause guarantees every qualified Boston student an equal opportunity to compete for a place in an Exam School, regardless of race," the complaint argues. "The tier system was implemented to limit that opportunity for members of a particular racial group."

A Boston Public Schools spokesperson declined to comment. A representative for the law firm representing the plaintiffs, Pacific Legal Foundation, was not immediately available for comment.

In a statement provided to WBUR on Friday, a city of Boston spokesperson said all BPS students “deserve a rigorous, high quality education."

"In recent years, the district has implemented changes to the exam school admissions policy to ensure that high-achieving students from every city neighborhood have a chance to attend these schools," the statement read. "The changes implemented to date and any under consideration are fully consistent with legal precedents.“

The Boston Public Schools has been sued over its exam school admissions policies in previous decades.

A racial "set aside" system mandated by U.S. District Judge Arthur Garrity during the Boston busing era was overturned in 1998.

The same Boston Parent Coalition in this case also sued BPS in 2020 over a temporary admissions policy used in 2021-22 that awarded exam school seats based on zip code and grades. It removed the entrance exam requirement because the test could not be administered during the COVID-19 pandemic. The parents challenged that policy, arguing it decreased seats awarded to white and Asian students.

The policy was eventually deemed constitutional and upheld on appeal by the First Circuit. The U.S. Supreme Court in December declined to take up the case.

On its website, Pacific Legal Foundation — a nonprofit firm which has brought other admissions-related cases on behalf of parent groups — said this latest lawsuit "builds on our previous work, demonstrating PLF’s relentless efforts to defend the Constitution’s promise of equality under the law."

The plaintiffs are seeking a block of the district's use of the socioeconomic tier system and a return to a city-wide merit-based admissions policy.