PHILADELPHIA - Four students who claimed they were entitled to a free education until they turn 22 years old have lost their lawsuit against the Council Rock and Central Bucks school districts.
The case concerned how far the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act extended, after the school districts terminated the plaintiffs' free appropriate public education (FAPE) after the school years during which they turned 21.
The federally funded IDEA says a FAPE must be available "to all children with disabilities residing in the State between the ages of 3 and 21." Judge Jerry Pappert on April 17 said the four plaintiffs, one of whom is known as C.B. in court documents, failed to show they have suffered an injury.
"C.B. does not turn 22 until March of 2028," Pappert wrote. "Thus, a state supreme court decision adverse to C.B. would not result in the denial of the FAPE to which she alleges she is entitled for at least two more years.
"While L.B. understandably prefers to know the maximum duration of C.B.'s FAPE as soon as possible and 'believes that the comprehensive services and supports C.B. receives... over the next three years are essential to her post-school success,' the possibility that C.B. will be denied a necessary FAPE two years from now is too speculative and remote to satisfy the actual-or-imminent requirement."
Pennsylvania had adopted IDEA's 21-year-old age limit, but a class action settlement had its Department of Education rewriting its policy to include 22-year-olds.
The Pennsylvania Association of School Boards and other school districts sued over the changes, claiming it was illegal and improper. That case reached the state Commonwealth Court in May 2024, and it was determined the DOE failed to institute the new policy in the manner outlined by state law.
That voided the new policy. The Education Department has appealed to the state Supreme Court, which first stayed enforcement of the Commonwealth Court ruling before taking on the case.
In March 2025, the Education Department published a new notice seeking public comment on extending FAPE to 22-year-olds. Two months earlier, the students had sued in federal court to prevent their education from being ended when they are 21.
Two of the students will turn 22 this year. One was told after the stay on the Commonwealth Court ruling that the district "will be working to ensure that your children will continue to receive services through this time of uncertainty."
Since those students are provided services until they are 22 under the stay, they have no standing in the suit, Pappert said. They have suffered no injury.
The only plaintiff with a "compelling case for injury" is V.S., who turns 21 in August.
"(T)he risk of harm to V.S. and the other plaintiffs turns on the actions of the state Supreme Court," Pappert wrote.
"Even if the Court were permitted to surmise that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is likely to affirm the unanimous en banc Commonwealth Court on the specific issues it decided, the Court cannot begin to guess whether, or how, that court will address the IDEA interpretive question."
The state Supreme Court granted oral arguments in November but they have not been scheduled.