EdLawConnect Blog

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 ...

On May 6, 2013, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California denied a district’s motion to dismiss an attorney’s fees action in J.B. v. San Jose Unified School District, 2013 WL 1891398, No. C-12-06358 SI (N.D. Cal. May 6, 2013). This ruling is particularly relevant to all school districts which are currently receiving increasingly more requests for independent education evaluations (“IEEs”) than in past years. In short, the Court ruled that the withdrawal of the San Jose Unified School District’s due process hearing complaint to defend its own evaluation may have conferred on J.B. (“Student”) “prevailing party” status which would entitle him to reasonable attorneys’ fees.

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 ...

Frequently, when a student is involved in the California juvenile dependency or delinquency courts the student’s LEA is unaware of the nature of the student’s involvement and not privy to information that is pertinent to the student’s educational success.  LEA’s are often unaware that they have the right to petition a juvenile court to release copies of juvenile court records for a student within ...

Over the years two questions have come up frequently regarding prior written notices to parents/legal guardians:

1.  When is a LEA required to provide prior written notice (“PWN”)?

2.  What constitutes a legally sufficient PWN?

Fortunately for LEAs, the IDEA and case law address both of these questions with some detail.

When Notice is Required

Under the IDEA a parent must be provided with prior written

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (“Section 504”) is a Congressional directive to schools receiving any federal funding to eliminate discrimination based on disability from all aspects of school operations. For a student to qualify for Section 504 protection the student must meet three criteria, which are (1) A mental or physical impairment (or ...

PLEASANTON, Calif. —Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo (AALRR) is pleased to welcome partner Elizabeth J. Rho-Ng to its Pleasanton office, where she will work in the firm’s Education Practice.

As many school districts, county offices of education and charter schools (“LEAs”) continue to face extreme financial hardships the proposition of having attorney’s fees awarded to an LEA for legal expenses associated with defending a due process hearing has becomes more alluring. While the IDEA allows LEAs to recover attorney’s fees, the circumstances under which the fees for an LEA can be ...

When a student is in an accelerated program for gifted and talented students, it is important to remember that qualification for advanced placement (“AP”) does not mean the student may not also qualify for special education or be identifiable as a person with a disability. When the topic of special education students in AP classes arises, there are two frequently asked questions that we will explore ...