EdLawConnect Blog

In the past, the IDEA’s exhaustion requirement has been applied in various parts of the United States to routinely bar lawsuits for injunctive relieve and/or money damages against school districts and their employees for violations of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (“Section 504”) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), when administrative due process procedures were ...

An individual has a disability under the Title II of the ADA (“ADA”) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (“Section 504”) if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment.  (28 C.F.R. Part 35.108(a)(1))  Local educational agencies (“LEA”) must ...

School districts (and county offices of education and charter schools) can be liable for failing to address the bullying or harassment of a student with a disability.  Are you properly addressing and responding to complaints of bullying and harassment?

Assessments are one of the primary vehicles by which IEP teams better understand the unique educational needs of special education students.  There are times, however, when a school district’s efforts are frustrated before testing even begins.  Luckily, two recent cases, one decided before the California Office of Administrative Hearing (OAH) and a second decided by OAH then the United States District ...

The California Education Code establishes the length of minimum school days for students based on grade levels. The minimum school day for students grades four through twelve is two-hundred and forty (240) minutes or four hours per school day.  Whereas, the minimum school day for grades one through three is two-hundred and thirty (230) minutes or three hours and fifty minutes per school day.  (Ed. Code §§ ...

As new charter schools are developed and continue to grow as an educational option for parents and students, more and more people are seeking answers to the question of what obligations charter schools have under the Federal civil rights laws.  In a nutshell, the same Federal civil rights laws, regulations, and guidance that apply to traditional public schools apply to charter schools in all of facets of ...

Whether or not door-to-door transportation is needed for a student with disabilities is an IEP team-based decision. To determine whether this type of transportation is required under the IDEA, courts have considered factors including the student’s needs, age, the nature of the student’s disability, the condition of the route to be traveled to the bus stop, the availability of public assistance when ...

School districts are required to ensure that extended school year (“ESY”) services are available as necessary in order to provide a free appropriate public education (“FAPE”) in accordance with federal and state law. (Title 34 Code of Federal Regulations (“C.F.R.”) Section 300.106(a)(1)) An individual education plan (“IEP”) team must make the determination on an individual basis ...

In recent years we’ve been asked what aspects of LEA programming are administrative and court litigation targets.  The four top areas remain (1) preschool-early primary grade autism programs, (2) elementary and middle school reading programs, (3) post-AB 3632 school based mental health programs and (4) ages 16-22 transition programs. Transition programs are addressed in that section of an IEP commonly ...

California, along with 46 other states and the District of Columbia, are gearing-up to implement the common core standards for Math and English Language Arts in 2014. The intent of developing a national common core standard was to eliminate gaps in academic expectations throughout the United States and to more closely align the United States academic standards with international standards. The common core ...