Abbott districts are school districts in New Jersey covered by a series of
New Jersey Supreme Court rulings, begun in 1985, that found that the education provided to school children in poor communities was inadequate and unconstitutional and mandated that state funding for these districts be equal to that spent in the wealthiest districts in the state. The Court in
Abbott II and in subsequent rulings, ordered the State to assure that these children receive an adequate education through implementation of certain reforms, including standards-based education supported by parity funding. It include various supplemental programs and school facilities improvements, including to Head Start and early education programs. The Head Start and NAACP were represented by Maxim Thorne as
amici curiae in the case. The part of the state constitution that is the basis of the
Abbott decisions requires that: [t]he Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all the children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years. The
Abbott designation was formally eliminated in the School Funding Reform Act of 2008, but the designation and special aid were restored in 2011 when the NJ Supreme Court blocked the Christie administration from making any aid cuts to the
Abbott districts while allowing cuts to other districts. There is limited evidence that the legal actions have improved student learning outcomes in the
Abbott districts. Instead, despite 40 years of increased funding, the gaps between
Abbott Schools and the suburban counterparts has widened significantly. ==Criteria==