A federal judge ruled on March 7 that U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ effort to delay a statute requiring states to remedy a racial gap in special education was illegal.

The rule, which dates back to the Obama administration, required districts to determine the causes of racial disparities and fund solutions. DeVos attempted to defer the regulation’s implementation by two years.

Instead, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the rule to go into effect immediately, calling DeVos’ delay “arbitrary and capricious.”

DeVos has rescinded numerous nonbinding guidance documents in her tenure, but the special education rule is binding. States had been preparing to implement it for more than a year.

“The court has sided with the children whom the department had deemed unimportant through its actions,” said Denise Marshall, the executive director for the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, which sued the Education Department over the regulation’s delay.

The New York Times, March 8