Case Name: Julie Hancock & others vs. Commissioner of Education & others
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 2005-02-15
Citations: 443 Mass. 428
Docket Number: 
Parties: Julie Hancock & others vs. Commissioner of Education & others.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 443
Pages: 428–493

Head Matter:
Julie Hancock & others vs. Commissioner of Education & others.
Suffolk.
October 4, 2004.
February 15, 2005.
Present: Marshall, C.J., Greaney, Ireland, Spina, Cowin, Sosman, & Cordy, JJ.
Deirdre Roney, Assistant Attorney General (Juliana deHaan Rice & Jane L. Willoughby, Assistant Attorneys General, with her) for the defendants.
Michael D. Weisman (Rebecca P. McIntyre, Emiliano Mazlen, Peter E. Montgomery, & Alan Jay Rom with him) for the plaintiffs.
The following submitted briefs for amici curiae:
Harvey J. Wolkoff for State Senator Jarrett T. Barrios & others.
Mark R. Freitas for Massachusetts Alliance for Arts Education & others.
Richard W. Benka for Massachusetts Health Council, Inc., & others.
Joel Z. Eigerman for Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action & others.
Daniel J. Gleason for Jonathan Kozol.
Roger L. Rice & Jane E. Lopez for Centro Latino de Chelsea & others.
M. Julie Patiño, Nadine Cohen, & Laura Maslow-Armand for Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of the Boston Bar Association & others.
Andrea C. Kramer, A. Lauren Carpenter, & Robert E. Sullivan for Massachusetts 2020 Foundation & others.
Ann Clarke, Stephen J. Finnegan, Jeffrey N. Jacobsen, & Michael J. Long for Massachusetts Teachers Association/NEA & others.
Thomas J. Dougherty & Kurt Wm. Hemr for Massachusetts Urban School Superintendents.
Henry C. Dinger & Benjamin M. Wattenmaker for Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education & others.
M. Robert Dushman, Albert W. Wallis, & Samantha L. Gerlovin for MassPartners for Public Schools & another.
Daniel J. Losen for The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.
Michael D. Vhay for Federation for Children with Special Needs, Inc.
Neil V. McKittrick & Patrick M. Curran, Jr., for Strategies for Children, Inc., & another.
Public school students in certain cities and.towns of the Commonwealth, including Brockton, Springfield, and Winchendon.
The chair, vice-chair, and nonstudent members of the board of education.

Opinion:
By the Court.
This matter is before the court on reservation and report by a single justice. A full description of the procedural background of the matter is set forth in the concurring opinion of the Chief Justice.
A majority of the Justices decline to adopt the conclusion of the specially assigned judge of the Superior Court that the Commonwealth presently is not meeting its obligations under Part II, c. 5, § 2, of the Massachusetts Constitution, and reject her recommendation for further judicial action at this time. The plaintiffs' motion for further relief is therefore denied, and the single justice's ongoing jurisdiction shall be terminated. By this action, the court disposes of the case in its entirety.
So ordered.