French Court Overturns Closure of Toulouse Muslim School in Education Dispute

Located in Toulouse in the Bellefontaine district, the school was forced to close in 2016 after a formal notice from its Academic Director. The reason given by the National Education services: the education provided was not "in conformity with the purpose of compulsory education".

Later, the Toulouse Correctional Court sentenced, on December 15, 2016, the association managing the private school to a permanent ban on practicing and teaching. While the school had been sanctioned for not having closed its doors following the formal notice from its Academic Director, it had requested the administrative judge to cancel the formal notice, which was rejected on July 4, 2017.

However, a new judicial twist arises, by a judgment rendered on December 20, 2018 by the Toulouse Court of Appeal, which comes to overturn the judgment of the Correctional Court. For the judge, "the formal notice was not regular due to the imprecision of its terms". This led the Bordeaux Administrative Court of Appeal to cancel the judgment of the Administrative Court, thus restoring the Muslim school in its rights.

The officials of this school have moreover taken care to salute "the end of a long legal battle, a first in France in the history of private schools".