Schools from the lowest elementary level through secondary school and beyond to colleges and universities owe students with disabilities the accommodations and special education equipment and services to learn alongside their peers. The federal disability rights laws that protect special education students apply just as much in the Provo-Orem Metropolitan Area as they do elsewhere across the country.
If you or your student in the Provo-Orem Metro Area face issues obtaining the proper services, equipment, or accommodations needed to fully enjoy an equivalent education, retain the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team for skilled, experienced, and effective help. Call 888.535.3686 now or use our contact form to tell us about your case in the Provo-Orem Metro Area. Don't go without the highly qualified attorney representation that can make a difference in your case.
Provo-Orem Metropolitan Area
The Provo-Orem Metropolitan Statistical Area in central and western Utah is large and relatively populous, having a population of over 700,000 individuals in over 200,000 households. Our attorneys recognize the special education needs and interests of that substantial population. The Provo-Orem Metro population is significantly younger than the national population, at a median of just under twenty-six years when the national median is nearly thirty-nine years. Households also have a significantly higher median income, compared to national statistics, perhaps associated with the area's significantly higher marriage rate than the national rate. Households in the Provo-Orem Metro Area also have more children than the national rate.
The Provo-Orem Metro Area includes just two counties, Utah County in the central area and Juab County to the south and west. Provo is the county seat of Utah County, which is the second most populous county in the state. Nephi is the seat of Juab County, which has a small fraction of the population of its neighbor to the north, Utah County. Orem, Lindon, and Vineyard are suburban areas surrounding Provo. Lehi, Salem, Spanish Fork, Springville, American Fork, Cedar Hills, Highland, and Mapleton are other cities and towns with significant populations in the two counties of Utah and Juab. We are available to help you in any of these cities, towns, or other areas within the Provo-Orem Metro Area.
School districts and schools in the Provo-Orem Metro Area include Provo School District, Provo City School District, Alpine School District, Juab District, Tintic District, American Leadership Academy, Aristotle Academy, Canyon Grove Academy, CS Lewis Academy, Franklin Discovery Academy, Freedom Academy, Ignite Entrepreneurship Academy, John Hancock Charter School, Lakeview Academy, Lincoln Academy, Mountainville Academy, and Ranches Academy. Our Student Defense Team is available to help you in any of these districts or schools.
Colleges and Universities in the Provo-Orem Metro Area
The Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team not only serves the elementary and secondary students in the above Provo-Orem Metro areas but also the area's college and university students with special education and disability rights needs. The public institution Utah Valley University serves the Provo-Orem area, while many private colleges and universities serve the area, including Brigham Young University, Provo College, Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions, Stevens-Henager College, and Joyce University of Nursing and Health Sciences. Our attorneys have the knowledge, skill, and experience to help you with your college or university special education and disability rights issues.
Rights Afforded Disabled Students by Utah Law
While many of the rights that protect students with disabilities have their source in federal law, described below, Utah state law also affords disabled students those same protections through extensive administrative rules. The Utah State Board of Education has adopted those hundreds of rules to comply with federal funding requirements, claiming authority to do so under Utah Code Section 53E-3-401(4). Our attorneys can help you invoke the Utah State Board of Education Special Education Rules and their protections for your K-12 student, in addition to helping you enforce your student's federal law rights and your own rights. The state's Special Education Rules include provisions guaranteeing:
- a child find system within your student's grade school, consistent with 34 CFR §§300.109, 300.111;
- referral of your child for special education assessment at the school's cost, consistent with 34 CFR §300.301;
- your consent to your child's evaluation before the school performs it, consistent with 34 CFR §300.300;
- your right to require a reevaluation of your student if you are not satisfied with the school's initial evaluation, at school expense, consistent with 34 CFR §300.303;
- that the school clearly determines your student's eligibility for special services and accommodation according to the completed evaluations, consistent with 34 CFR §300.306;
- that the school put an IEP in place for your student when qualified for special education services, consistent with 34 CFR §300.323;
- that the school properly constitute your student's IEP team, including the regular classroom teacher, the special education teacher, you, and, if you wish, your student, consistent with 34 CFR §300.321;
- that you and your student get to attend each IEP team meeting the school calls, consistent with 34 CFR §300.321;
- that you have fair notice of all IEP team meetings so that you can adequately prepare and participate, consistent with 34 CFR §300.322;
- that your student's school educate your student in the least restrictive environment, consistent with 34 CFR §300.114; and
- that your student's school provides appropriate assistive technology, consistent with 34 CFR §300.105.
Procedural Safeguards for Disabled Students Under Utah Law
The same Utah State Board of Education, Special Education Rules, also guarantee you and your K-12 student procedural safeguards if your student's school fails to comply with any of the above requirements and many similar requirements Utah and federal law impose. Those procedural safeguards include:
- that you get to examine your student's evaluations and other disability documentation upon request and at IEP team meetings, consistent with 34 CFR §300.501;
- that you may, with our assistance, prepare and file a complaint with the school, invoking its administrative process to correct the school's deficiencies in complying with the law, consistent with 34 CFR §300.508;
- that you may, with our assistance, invoke and attend a due process hearing before an impartial decision-maker at which to present your evidence of the school's failure to provide your student with appropriate services, resources, equipment, and accommodations, consistent with 34 CFR §300.511;
- that you have the right to retain us to assist you at the due process hearing, consistent with 34 CFR §300.512; and
- that you have the right to have our assistance in pursuing a state administrative appeal and, beyond that, civil litigation against the school if it denies your student the appropriate accommodations, consistent with 34 CFR §§300.516, 300.537.
Rights Afforded Disabled Students by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
Utah's State Board of Education adopted the above Utah state special education rules to ensure that the state's schools qualified for the substantial federal funding Congress annually appropriates for special education services in K-12 schools. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, popularly known as the IDEA law, defines the basic obligation of those federally funded state-grade schools to educate disabled students.
The IDEA Law's Guarantee of a Free Appropriate Public Education
The IDEA law's central defining concept is that those grade schools must provide every student, including students with disabilities, with a free appropriate public education (FAPE). That mandate ensures that your disabled student has the legal right to the special education services, equipment, accommodation, and resources necessary to offer your student an education equivalent to the education of non-disabled students. Enforcement of this right may mean that your student will be able to obtain technology, assistive devices, enlarged or otherwise altered texts and materials, equipment, and the services of counselors, readers, and aides, as well as handicap ramps, widened doors, bathroom railings, and similar building modifications. We can help you advocate in IEP team meetings and administrative proceedings for these rights.
The IDEA Law's Guarantee of Education in the Least Restrictive Environment
Another of the IDEA law's central tenets is that your student's school cannot banish your student to a special room outside of the traditional classroom if the school's accommodative services and equipment can educate your child in the traditional classroom. The same right would apply to your disabled student's use of the gymnasium, pool, stage, laboratories, playground, cafeteria, and other spaces non-disabled students enjoy for their instructional and co-curricular activities. If you find that the school is trying to shunt your student into substandard spaces apart from the regular educational environment enjoyed by non-disabled students, let us advocate on your student's behalf, invoking the above procedural safeguards under both Utah law and the cited federal administrative code provisions.
Rights Afforded Disabled Students by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
The IDEA law is not the only federal law standing behind your Provo-Orem Metro Area educational rights or the rights of your minor K-12 student. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is another federal law protecting disabled students, although the ADA extends beyond grade school to apply to colleges and universities in the Provo-Orem Metro Area, too. Let us help you or your student enforce your ADA rights.
The ADA's Qualifying Requirements
The ADA has a different legal structure and uses different constructs to provide rights similar to those provided by IDEA law. The ADA is an anti-discrimination law prohibiting schools from discriminating on the basis of a qualifying disability. For you or your student to have the ADA's protection, you must prove a qualifying disability, defined as “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.” You or your student can also qualify if you are able to prove “a history or record of such an impairment” or that others perceive an impairment. The ADA does not list which impairments qualify as long as they substantially limit a major life activity. Major life activities can be physical, like sitting, standing, walking, running, or lifting; functional, like vision or hearing; or mental, like cognitive ability and concentration.
The ADA's Education Accommodations
Once you or your student qualify for ADA protection, the ADA requires that the school, at whatever level, reasonably accommodate the disability. The reasonableness of an accommodation can involve its cost, availability, necessity, and disruption. Common ADA accommodations within education include extended time to take exams, exams within an isolated room reducing distractions, altered schedules, readers for exams, note takers for lecture classes, enlarged type for vision impairments, optical character readers for blind students, and a host of similar services and accommodations. We can help you advocate for appropriate accommodations.
The Disability Rights Services Our Attorneys Provide
Don't underestimate the challenge of enforcing student disability rights through a school's academic administrative procedures. Our attorneys know the complex federal and state laws guaranteeing those rights. We can research, cite, and advocate those laws. Our attorneys also know the appropriate procedures. We can invoke those procedures on your behalf, advocating for prompt voluntary compliance. When the school fails or refuses to comply, our attorneys can deploy the appropriate administrative procedures, whether that means demanding arranging a conciliation conference, demanding and conducting a formal hearing, or, if you have already lost your hearing, then taking an appeal. If you have already lost your appeal, we may be able to obtain alternative special relief through oversight channels. Civil litigation may also be an option.
Premier Student Disability Rights Attorneys for Provo-Orem
If you or your student in the Provo-Orem Metro Area face any of the above issues in obtaining special education services or with student disability rights and accommodations, the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team is available throughout the area. We have successfully helped hundreds of students with disability and other school issues throughout the nation and across Utah, including in the Provo-Orem Metro Area. Call 888.535.3686 now or use our contact form to tell us about your case.
