Opinion ID: 1843606
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Liability Order

Text: The circuit court held that Alabama's public education system violated the constitutional mandate of Art. XIV, § 256, and Art. I, §§ 1, 6, 13, and 22 of the Alabama Constitution in that, it found, the system failed to provide equal and adequate educational opportunities to all schoolchildren. By issuing the liability order, the trial judge stepped into the policy-making role of the Legislature. The court then issued a remedy order to enforce its liability order. In the liability order, Judge Reese ordered that the state officers charged by law with the responsibility for the Alabama public school system establish a public school system that provides equitable and adequate educational opportunities to all school-age children and provide[s] appropriate instruction and special services for students with disabilities aged three through twenty-one.