A DeKalb County judge recently dismissed a lawsuit filed by a family against DeKalb School District 428 after their son’s first day of kindergarten went awry.

On Thursday, Chief Judge Bradley Waller ruled to dismiss the case in favor of District 428, but called for both sides to appear for a subsequent status hearing in April.

A complaint first filed in court in August 2025 alleged that 6-year-old Stevie Stoker had been placed in the wrong classroom on his first day of kindergarten at Founders Elementary School in DeKalb.

Stevie’s actual teacher had gone looking for him in the building. But the Stokers said their son was misidentified, unaccounted for, marked absent, and put on the wrong bus to a location unknown to his parents, the filing alleges. Stevie was eventually found when his parents followed an AirTag, a mobile tracking device, to the school bus where he was.

Stevie’s mom, Shannon Stoker, said the case is not done.

“We are going to refile and try to fix what the judge suggested,” Shannon said. “I know [the district] they wanted it thrown out where we wouldn’t be able to refile, and it would just be done. And that didn’t happen. That being said, I wish we didn’t have to refile, but it’s not dead.”

The lawsuit filed Aug. 13, 2025, in DeKalb County court names 18 defendants, including some current and ex-school board members, staff and Superintendent Minerva Garcia-Sanchez, records show.

The child’s parents argue in the 123-page filing that their son Stevie, who was 6 at the time, also required medical treatment “to abate their fears arising from this incident.” The parents argued in the filing that their son suffered “emotional distress and confusion.”

Attorney Blake Costantino, who was representing the Stokers, argued that because of Stevie’s individualized education plan, a higher standard of care was needed.

“He’s not just a regular 6-year-old child,” Costantino said. “He’s a kid with special needs.”

District officials have previously said that Stevie was not missing, and was in fact in the classroom and safe all day – but staffing errors the district has admitted to led to Stevie being misidentified as a different child that day. So Stevie Stoker was marked absent on the record. His parents did not know that until late in the day, they had said.

Attorney Pam Simaga, who represents District 428 defendants, argued the lawsuit “would open the school up to many, many more IEP cases” if the judge didn’t rule to dismiss.

Waller granted the district’s motion to dismiss the case, but without prejudice. That means that, if the Stokers wanted, they could bring an amended complaint back to court.

When asked to comment on Waller’s ruling, a spokeswoman for DeKalb School District 428 said the district can’t comment on ongoing litigation.

The judge also dismissed First Student’s part in the plaintiff’s complaint.

Shannon said it was difficult to sit through the court hearing.

“I mean, I found the whole thing really belittling,” Shannon said. “Some parts of it were really hard to hear. The whole entire time the school district has tried to act like this is not a big deal. ... I disagree. I think it was a huge deal, and that’s kind of how they sounded today.”

During the court hearing, Simaga repeatedly argued that what transpired on the first day of school in 2024 at Founders Elementary School doesn’t “shock the conscience.”

Shannon said she disagreed.

“I think that is incorrect on so many levels,” Shannon said. “I think this definitely shocks the conscience. We’ve seen a lot of support from people and for them trying to act like this is no big deal, this is normal is very upsetting that that is still how the school district wants to behave.”

The case is expected be heard again at 9 a.m. April 9 at the DeKalb County Courthouse, 133 W. State St. in Sycamore.