With no agreement on how to integrate New Jersey schools, the lawsuit brought by a coalition of advocates and families will return to court after almost a year and a half of closed-door, mediated talks.

A status report filed Tuesday said the parties did not come up with a settlement and will return the matter to trial court by April 15. According to the status report, “it no longer appears likely that further mediation will be constructive.” In statements, attorneys representing the plaintiffs and a spokesperson for the state said they worked hard to reach an agreement and remain committed to providing a high-quality education for all the state’s students.

“We are greatly disappointed with the collapse of the mediation,” said Javier Robles, president of the Latino Action Network, a plaintiff in the case. “We will continue to pursue every option to end the disgraceful legacy of segregation in New Jersey schools. This is a generational struggle, and we will do our part.”

Lawyers for Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration and the plaintiffs in Latino Action Network v. New Jersey entered mediated talks to address long-standing segregation in New Jersey schools in November 2023. Both sides previously said mediation had the potential to resolve the matter more quickly than litigation, saving the state time and money. In a statement, the plaintiffs’ attorneys said they now believe a court judgment is the “surest way to achieve a remedy for this unacceptable reality, in which hundreds of thousands of the state’s children attend school in segregated settings.”

Origins of the case

The case had already lasted five years before entering mediation and will now carry on after over a year of unsuccessful talks. The sweeping lawsuit was initiated in 2018 by the Latino Action Network, the NAACP and several students and families. State Superior Court Judge Robert Lougy ruled in October 2023 that the state has failed to ensure children’s constitutional rights to an education free of racial segregation. The ruling did not say what the state must do where school segregation exists.

“While the parties return to the litigation, the State remains steadfast in its efforts to provide the most robust educational opportunities possible for all students and continues to be open to reaching a mutual resolution of the matter,” Murphy spokesperson Tyler Jones said Tuesday.

‘We are committed to that litigation and confident that we will prevail given the undeniable proof of the longstanding and pervasive segregation of New Jersey’s public schools and the indisputable unconstitutionality of that segregation.’ — Attorneys for the plaintiffs

Jones said the state worked hard to reach a resolution and is disappointed that discussions ended without an agreement. The plaintiffs’ attorneys also said in a statement they are disappointed an agreement was not reached that satisfied their objective. They said they were hoping for legal assurance the state would take concrete steps to give all New Jersey children the opportunity to attend an integrated school that offers a high-quality education and provide financial and academic support to currently segregated school districts.

Now, the issue is returning to the court, where it began nearly seven years ago.

Just the latest in string of legal challenges

“We are committed to that litigation and confident that we will prevail given the undeniable proof of the longstanding and pervasive segregation of New Jersey’s public schools and the indisputable unconstitutionality of that segregation,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys said.

School segregation has been a long-standing issue in the state, with many legal challenges brought over the last several decades. New Jersey is the seventh-most segregated state for Black and Latino students, according to an analysis by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“In New Jersey, too many students are being denied a ‘thorough and efficient’ education as a result of segregation policies. The NAACP New Jersey State Conference will not rest until these policies in New Jersey schools have been eradicated, no matter the length of our journey,” said the group’s president Richard T. Smith.

Segregated schools tend to produce lower educational outcomes, in turn limiting lifetime opportunities, for students who attend high-poverty, high-minority schools, according to a report on New Jersey from the Civil Rights Project. A growing body of research is showing that desegregated schools are linked to benefits for all children.