A teenage girl with a rare form of epilepsy won a unanimous Supreme Court ruling on Thursday that’s expected to make it easier for families of children with disabilities to sue schools over access to education.

The girl’s family says that her Minnesota school district didn’t do enough to make sure she has the disability accommodations she needs to learn, including failing to provide adequate instruction in the evening when her seizures are less frequent.

But lower courts ruled against the family’s claim for damages, despite finding the school had fallen short. That’s because courts in that part of the country required plaintiffs to show schools used “bad faith or gross misjudgment,” a higher legal standard than most disability discrimination claims.

“Until this morning, basically children with disabilities in the education context were being held to a higher standard and they had to prove their claims under a more demanding, more stringent test than any other plaintiff trying to vindicate their rights under the disabilities law,” said Roman Martinez, the family’s attorney with Latham & Watkins. “We said that was wrong and said the same rules should apply to everyone and the Supreme Court agreed with us on that.”

The district, Osseo Area Schools, said that lowering the legal standard could expose the country’s understaffed public schools to more lawsuits if their efforts fall short, even if officials are working in good faith.

The family appealed to the Supreme Court, which found that lawsuits against schools should have the same requirements as other disability discrimination claims.

Children with disabilities and their parents “face daunting challenges on a daily basis. We hold today that those challenges do not include having to satisfy a more stringent standard of proof than other plaintiffs,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court.

The court rebuffed the district’s argument, made late in the appeals process, that all claims over accommodations for people with disabilities should be held to the same higher standard — a potentially major switch that would have been a “five-alarm fire” for the disability rights community, the girl’s lawyers said.

Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, wrote separately to say he would be willing to consider those arguments at some point in the future, though he didn’t say whether they would win.

But Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, saw it differently. Sotomayor wrote in another concurrence that adopting those higher standards more broadly would “eviscerate the core” of disability discrimination laws.

A statement from Osseo Area Schools on Thursday said:

Osseo Area Schools educates nearly 21,000 students including 3,000 students with disabilities whom have the right to education from birth through age 22. The goal of our dedicated educators is to ensure that every scholar has what they need to benefit from the exceptional opportunities, support and partnerships available in the district. We’re committed to the principles and the ideals expressed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court held that under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, disability discrimination, “claims based on educational services should be subject to the same standards that apply in other disability discrimination contexts.” The court declined to decide what the particular intent standard is for such claims.

The case will now return to the trial court for next steps consistent with the court’s ruling.

In the days and months ahead, Osseo Area Schools will continue to diligently focus on educating all of its students and providing needed services for every scholar’s learning needs. 

“[The family’s] hope has always been not just to help their daughter who has very significant challenges but also to help their kids and other parents out there,” said Martinez.

Martinez called Thursday’s ruling a win for the family and “children with disabilities facing discrimination in schools across the country.” He added that “it will help protect the reasonable accommodations needed to ensure equal opportunity for all.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.