## Facts

- Jennifer L. Barno was a high school senior attending Maplewood Area Joint Vocational School (a public vocational school) while residing in the Crestwood Local School District.
- Barno successfully completed her schoolwork, earned a 3.966/4.0 GPA through the first five grading periods of her senior year, and passed all state-required proficiency tests.
- Maplewood’s board had an attendance policy that denied academic credit to students with 13 or more absences in a school year (a 93% attendance requirement), counting both excused and unexcused absences.
- During her senior year, Barno accumulated 18.5 absences, 16.5 of which were excused.
- Barno’s principal informed her that, because she exceeded the absence limit, she would not receive academic credit for the year and would not graduate.
- The policy allowed a student to seek relief based on “extenuating circumstances” through a reinstatement committee, but neither the policy nor the student materials given to Barno defined what qualified as extenuating circumstances.
- Barno submitted a request for reconsideration; the reinstatement committee found no extenuating circumstances and denied relief, and it denied her subsequent appeal.
- Barno filed an original action seeking a writ of mandamus to compel the boards and school officials to issue her a diploma under Ohio’s graduation statutes.
- The trial court denied mandamus, and Barno appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether Ohio’s graduation statutes permit a local board of education to deny a diploma solely because a student exceeded a percentage-based attendance limit, despite completing academic requirements and passing required proficiency tests.
2. Whether a board may treat a strict attendance threshold as part of the “curriculum” for purposes of determining diploma eligibility under R.C. 3313.61/3313.611.
3. Whether Barno satisfied the requirements for mandamus by showing a clear legal right to a diploma, a clear legal duty on the part of the respondents, and no adequate remedy at law.

## Decision

- The court of appeals reversed the trial court and granted mandamus relief.
- The court held that the board could not lawfully deny Barno a diploma solely due to absenteeism where she otherwise completed the graduation requirements and passed all required state tests.
- The court concluded that the statutory term “curriculum” could not be expanded by local policy so that a percentage-attendance rule, standing alone, defeated a student’s statutory entitlement to graduation.
- The court determined Barno had a clear legal right to a diploma and the respondents had a corresponding clear legal duty to issue it, making mandamus an appropriate remedy.

## Legal Principles

- Mandamus lies only where the relator establishes (1) a clear legal right to the requested relief, (2) a clear legal duty on the respondent to provide it, and (3) no adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law.
- Local boards of education have authority to adopt and enforce attendance rules, but those rules cannot conflict with or defeat rights granted by state graduation statutes.
- For purposes of Ohio’s diploma statutes, a board may not treat a rigid attendance percentage as the determinative “curriculum” requirement when the student has completed academic coursework and satisfied state testing requirements.
- A reinstatement process that turns on undefined “extenuating circumstances,” applied without stated standards, supports the conclusion that the diploma denial rested on an unreasonable attendance-only barrier rather than on failure to meet statutory graduation requirements.

## Conclusion

The appellate court held that, under Ohio’s graduation statutes, a school district could not withhold a diploma from a student who completed academic requirements and passed required proficiency tests based solely on exceeding a percentage-based attendance limit; Barno therefore had a clear legal right to graduation and was entitled to a writ of mandamus compelling issuance of her diploma.


State ex rel. Barno v. Crestwood Board of Education, 731 N.E.2d 701 (1998)