Students in failing school districts have the right to transfer to neighboring school districts without paying tuition, according to an opinion issued Friday by the Missouri Supreme Court.

The court ruled that students in unaccredited districts, such as St. Louis and Riverview Gardens, may transfer to other schools in the same or adjoining county and not have to foot the bill. Instead, the unaccredited district would cover the cost.

The implications of the ruling, and how it could affect thousands of children in the area's two unaccredited school districts, remain unclear. Attorneys for St. Louis and Clayton schools were reviewing the ruling Friday.

The decision is not a final action. Instead, the Supreme Court is sending the case back to a lower court for further review. That process could allow school districts to argue that accepting all transfer requests from unaccredited districts would be impossible.

Even so, an attorney representing the plaintiffs — four St. Louis parents with children in Clayton schools — called the ruling a victory.

"I'm just glad we didn't back down," said Elkin Kistner, the attorney for the parents. "The money that is propping up St. Louis Public Schools is going to have the opportunity now to be applied in a meaningful way."

In 2007, Kistner filed suit on behalf of parents who had transferred their six children to Clayton schools and were told to pay tuition. The parents argued they shouldn't be responsible for paying because they lived in an unaccredited school district. But a circuit court ruled against the parents.

St. Louis Public Schools, the largest district in the state, lost its accreditation in 2007. Parents that year hit school districts in St. Louis County with dozens of transfer requests. But most of those districts resisted, citing lack of space. In Clayton's case, it had taken students from the Wellston District, and the district wasn't paying Clayton schools what it owed.

The court ruled that neighboring school districts must admit children living in unaccredited districts, and that those children are free to attend whatever public school they choose. Judges cited a Missouri statute that says boards of unaccredited schools 'shall pay the tuition of and provide transportation … for each pupil resident therein who attends an accredited school in another district of the same or adjoining county."

In the case of the four parents, Clayton schools declined to bill St. Louis school officials for the students' tuition. So, the parents entered into tuition agreements with Clayton schools and forked over the money.

"We were put between a rock and a hard place," said Jane Turner, one of the parents.

About 20 students from the St. Louis Public Schools are paying tuition at Clayton, according to Chris Tennill, Clayton School District spokesman. Tuition is $9,860 a year for kindergarten through fifth grade. For sixth through 12th grade, annual tuition is $14,815.

When neighboring school districts pick up the tab, however, the cost is even higher, Tennill said. The districts must pay according to a state formula that includes debt service, which could push the cost up by as much as another $1,000 a year.

Judges ruled that Turner and the parents could not be reimbursed tuition they had already paid. Turner said she's still happy with the ruling.

"It is gratifying that the high court in the state of Missouri said that my children and other children have a statutory right to attend Clayton schools with city schools' loss of accreditation," she said.

How this could affect St. Louis Public Schools was unclear Friday. When the parents sued in 2007, a spokeswoman for St. Louis Public Schools said a win for the plaintiffs could be catastrophic for city schools.

When students leave, money goes with them. The district's population is shrinking, with current enrollment at about 25,000 students. About 10,000 students in the district are attending charter schools — public schools that are independent of the school district. Another 6,500 are part of the voluntary desegregation program that allows minority students to attend county schools.

Of concern to Clayton schools and other county districts is the fact that Missouri laws don't specify under what circumstances, if any, they may refuse students from unaccredited districts.

"Clayton, like any county school district, couldn't just absorb a dramatic increase in enrollment," said Mark Bremer, an attorney representing Clayton School District.

Judge Patricia Breckinridge and two other judges dissented, in part, with Friday's opinion. They said forcing districts like Clayton to universally accept students from unaccredited districts could create a crisis.

"Such an increase would require the Clayton School District, virtually overnight to acquire new classroom buildings and hire numerous additional faculty members to meet the increased demands on the district. Such a result is absurd," Breckinridge wrote.

The dissenting judges pointed to a separate state statute that they say gives school districts like Clayton the discretion to turn such students away under certain circumstances.

But the majority ruled that there is no such flexibility under the law, which they describe as 'straightforward and unambiguous."