When 'We Didn't Mean It' Stops Being Enough
The Supreme Court just made it harder for schools to hide behind "we didn't mean it" when they violate disabled students' rights. AJT v. Osseo, decided 9-0, overturned Eighth Circuit precedent that required schoolchildren to prove "bad faith or gross misjudgment" by school officials in disability discrimination cases. The new standard is "deliberate indifference"—the same one that applies to every other ADA and Rehabilitation Act claim (Abilities.com, 2026). That sounds like legal minutiae. It's not. It's the difference between a school district saying "we made a mistake" and walking away, versus a disabled student actually getting relief. What "bad faith" really meant Under the old Eighth Circuit standard, a disabled student had to prove the school didn't just violate their rights—they had to prove the school meant to. That the discrimination was intentional, malicious, or so reckless it crossed into bad faith. In ...