In 2015, the Tharpes and their then-10-year-old daughter moved to Minnesota from Kentucky for Aaron’s work. After exploring several suburban school districts, Aaron Tharpe said the family enrolled Ava in Osseo Area Schools after officials there said they would meet her educational needs.
Ava is now 19 and will be a senior this fall at Maple Grove Senior High School. She has a rare form of epilepsy called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and has seizures throughout the day, although they’re much more frequent in the morning. In Kentucky, school officials agreed to give her a school day from noon to 6 p.m.
Although Osseo school officials originally said they would follow the same later-in-the-day plan, Aaron Tharpe said, they did not. Years of meetings, conferences, complaints, litigation and appeals followed.
Meanwhile, the family said, their daughter fell further behind.
They sued the school district under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act seeking to secure her right to a full school day and compensatory damages.
A federal judge sided, in part, with the school district. And in March 2024, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision, citing a 1982 court ruling that set a precedent requiring families to prove school officials intentionally discriminated against their children.