As a parent of an elementary or secondary school student in a kindergarten through twelfth-grade program, you know that your student's number one educational goal is to advance in grade on time each year. Regular advancement and progression with one's peers can be critical to a student's motivation, self-discipline, self-worth, and success. Don't let progression issues hold your student back. Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team to help address those issues and keep your student on track. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form to tell us about your student's case.
Academic Reasons for Having Grade Levels
Elementary and secondary schools generally have standards that school officials apply for advancing students from grade level to grade level. Grades, after all, serve the function of grouping students by relative academic knowledge and skill. For efficiency reasons, teachers generally instruct groups of students rather than tutoring individual students one by one. For a teacher to instruct a group of students effectively, the students must all have relatively the same academic knowledge and skills. That's why you want your student to keep up with the class so that your student can benefit from the instruction without finding it too hard. That's also why you want your student to advance with the class rather than being held back, where your student already has the knowledge and skill and doesn't need to repeat the instruction. You want your student to learn new material and skills, not to languish by having to repeat a grade level, covering subjects and skills that your student has already mastered.
Non-Academic Reasons for Having Grade Levels
But grade levels aren't solely about academic knowledge and skill. Schools also make retention and advancement decisions based on other factors, including a student's physical development, mental development, behavioral issues, and social development. A large and strong student, or one who is sexually mature, should generally be with other large and strong students, not only for instruction but also for safety and behavioral controls. Mentally immature students who lack concentration, attention, and reasoning capability should generally be with students of equal capability, not with advanced students who consistently outthink and outsmart them. Social and behavioral skills should also generally be similar. A kindergarten or first-grade teacher addresses entirely different student behavioral and social issues, including dressing and hygiene, than a third or fourth-grade teacher. You want your student to advance with developmental peers rather than have the school hold your student back among younger students learning behaviors your student has already mastered.
Academic Progression Issues and Holding Students Back
Elementary and secondary schools, though, don't always apply grade-level standards properly. Teachers may mark down and refuse to advance students who are generally capable of grade-level performance when the students exhibit physical, social, or behavioral issues that the school should otherwise address. School officials may decide to hold back a small student, withdrawn student, socially isolated student, or student who is acting out for other reasons when holding the student back won't help and will instead create academic problems. School officials may decide to hold back a student who is physically, mentally, socially, and behaviorally ready to advance with age peers when the student struggles with academic studies for reasons that the school could and should otherwise address. Don't let your student languish. Let us help if your student's school threatens to hold your student back.
Academic Causes of Progression and Advancement Issues
Parents may correctly presume that their student's failure to meet academic standards is the main cause of advancement issues. Your student's school very likely has academic benchmarks your student must meet to advance. If your student is unable to read at grade level, for instance, or to perform basic math operations other students are able to perform, then advancing your student may create instructional issues until your student masters the necessary knowledge and skill. The district or state may even impose the school's academic benchmarks, requiring the school to advance or hold back students based on their performance on district or state tests. Schools may have some leeway to advance a small number of students not meeting benchmarks but may face regulator, parent, and public scrutiny if advancing too many students who fail to make the grades. Let us help advocate for your student's advancement, even if the issue is solely academics. The school may have considerable discretion to advance your student, who may be able to keep up with appropriate remediation.
Non-Academic Causes of Progression and Advancement Issues
Yet advancing from grade level to grade level isn't simply a matter of academics. Promoting a student to the next grade should not and generally does not depend solely on scores on standardized testing. A range of factors, well beyond academic knowledge and skill, can contribute to academic progression issues. Any of the following non-academic issues may be contributing to your student's failure to meet academic benchmarks.
Learning Disabilities Interfering with Advancement
Your student may have a diagnosed or undiagnosed learning disability like attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that the school has unlawfully failed to accommodate. Your student may have suffered distraction on testing, thus performing well below your student's actual capability, when accommodation in an isolated setting would have enabled your student to perform at grade level. Or your student may have dyslexia requiring reading and recognition support, hearing issues requiring amplification devices or soundproofing, vision issues requiring glasses, enlarged text, or a seat nearer the teacher's projection or whiteboard. Many other physical, mental, and learning disabilities can contribute to failures to perform and advance when the school unlawfully fails to accommodate them. Let our attorneys help enforce your student's disability accommodation rights.
Social Relationships Interfering with Advancement
Your student's social relationships may also be interfering with your student's academic performance. Bullying, harassment, and intimidation, in particular, can discourage and disabuse a student from studies or, even if the student studies effectively, from performing at their capability. Bullying victims may refuse to perform academically for fear of reprisal and to avoid advancing with perpetrators, or they may just be unable to concentrate and attend because of the bullying's harmful physical, mental, and emotional effects. Short of outright bullying, social rejection, and isolation can discourage and depress a student so that the student lacks the necessary concentration, attention, and effort for effective studies. Schools have the legal obligation to prevent bullying. They also have the obligation to foster a student culture where all students feel empowered to learn. We can help you advocate for your student's advancement by showing the school the harmful effects of bullying and other social issues.
Injury, Illness, and Other Temporary Causes Interfering with Advancement
Temporary causes and conditions can also interfere with your student's academic performance and advancement. Your student may have suffered an illness or injury that kept your student from completing schoolwork or taking and passing exams. Your student may be fully able to make up the work if given the chance. Your student may instead have faced the death of a grandparent or other loved one or had to deal with other difficult circumstances at home, such as your separation or divorce, or job loss and relocation. Any number of stresses and changes in the home can affect a student's ability to attend and concentrate enough to perform at grade level. But your student may readily be able to make up the missed ground without having the school hold your student back.
Teacher Conflicts and Discrimination Interfering with Advancement
Unfortunately, in some instances, the causes for a student's inability to show adequate academic progress have to do not with the student or with the student's peers but with the teacher or school. In rare instances, a teacher may just have a personality conflict with a student on whatever personal grounds. When a primary teacher does not like or at least respect and serve a student and instead actively dislikes, embarrasses, and discourages the student, the student can suffer to the point of the school holding the student back. Sometimes, unlawful discrimination may be a contributing cause. Teachers may mistreat students based on race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, religion, disability, or another characteristic that state or federal law protects. In those instances, our attorneys can help you enforce your student's civil rights to advance.
Risks When the School Refuses to Promote Your Student
Don't underestimate the potential impacts when the school threatens to hold your student back. The first impacts a parent considers are generally the academic impacts. You want the school to consistently challenge, teach, and develop your student to their full capacity. Repeating a grade obviously does not do so. Repeating a grade means redoing what the school has already done once but without adequate effect. Failing to advance can mean a lost academic year while also impacting your student's confidence in the ability to advance through future years. Failing a grade can feel like a long-term judgment that your student isn't capable of rigorous academic work.
But the impacts of the school holding your student back are not just academic. Your student may also suffer socially and developmentally simply by losing peer relationships. The student who gets held back can lose important friendships, study groups, and teammates in co-curricular and extracurricular sports and club activities. The student who gets held back can be the subject of ostracization and even ridicule among the new group of students coming up whom the held-back student joins. Those social effects can cause your student to suffer not just socially and developmentally but also academically, further discouraging your student from effective studies. Holding a student back can have longer-term impacts.
Safeguards Against Holding Students Back
Fortunately, schools generally have procedural protections that our skilled and experienced attorneys can help you invoke to challenge the school's proposal or decision to hold your student back. State or federal law may even mandate those procedural safeguards. If, for instance, your student has a qualifying disability, then the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, or another state or federal disability rights law may mandate that the school notify you of your right to a hearing to challenge the school's proposed action. Even if your student does not have a qualifying disability, other laws, rules, and regulations, including the school's own policies, likely grant you the right to a formal hearing at which we can help you challenge the proposed action. You may even have the right to appeal the school's decision to the district or a state agency.
Our Attorneys Can Fight for Your Student's Advancement
Our skilled and experienced attorneys are prepared to fight for your student's advancement. The procedural safeguards just mentioned give our attorneys the opportunity to appear on your student's behalf, notifying the school's officials that we intend to marshal the evidence, law, and arguments for your student to advance. Our appearance alone may cause the school's officials to reconsider their threat to hold your student back. We may also be able to help you arrange a prompt conciliation conference at which we may be able to help you negotiate alternative relief to holding your student back. We may be able to show that the school should be providing referrals for evaluation and providing services and accommodations to satisfy your student's disability rights. We can also help you invoke a formal hearing to present your student's side and to take available appeals. We have also frequently been able to arrange alternative special relief through the school's oversight channels.
Premier Student Defense Attorney Services Available
Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team if your student's school is threatening to hold your student back against your student's best interests. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to tell us about your student's case. Don't let your student's education languish. Get the help your student needs to advance.
