This case was filed against the Raymondville Independent School District (RISD) in Texas by Roy Castañeda, the father of two Mexican-American children.

Castañeda also claimed the Raymondville Independent School District failed to establish sufficient bilingual education programs, which would have aided his children in overcoming the language barriers that prevented them from participating equally in the classroom.

According to Lau v. Nichols, 414 U.S. 563 (1974),[1] a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, school districts in this country are required to take the necessary actions in order to provide students who do not speak English as their first language the ability to overcome the educational barriers associated with not being able to properly comprehend what is being taught to them.

Castañeda argued that there was no way to sufficiently measure the Raymondville Independent School District's approach to overcoming this barrier.

In 1981 the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of the Castañedas, and as a result, the court decision established a three-part assessment for determining how bilingual education programs would be held responsible for meeting the requirements of the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974.