Can students sue when schools don't make the grade? The Washington Assessment of Student Learning and educational malpractice

Washington's Academic Achievement and Accountability Statute (AAA Statute) creates a statewide system of school accountability. It also requires that all students pass the tenth-grade level of the Washington Assessment of Stu dent Learning standardized test (WASL) to receive a diploma. Unfortunately, when this graduation requirement takes effect in 2008, many students will not receive diplomas because they will be unable to pass the WASL before gr aduation. Some of these students will have met all local graduation require ments, so the only graduation requirement they will not be able to meet wil l be the statewide requirement that they pass the WASL. Their WASL failure will show that their school districts failed to educate them to statewide s tandards either by inadequately instructing them or by allowing them to pas s local assessments even though they lacked essential skills. This Comment explores the viability of educational malpractice claims against school dis tricts for compensatory damages for remedial education when students are de nied diplomas based only on failing WASL scores. Such claims, based on the AAA Statute, should succeed under the Washington Supreme Court's most recen t test for determining the existence of an implied private statutory cause of action. These claims should also overcome other legal and policy barrier s that have led Washington and other state courts to reject educational mal practice causes of action.