Kentucky Middle and Elementary Education
Kentucky prides itself on its middle and elementary schools, offering sound and vital education to students of all backgrounds and socioeconomic classes. Kentucky's strong public and private elementary and middle schools serve Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green, Owensboro, Covington, Hopkinsville, Nicholasville, Elizabethtown, and the state's other urban, suburban, and rural areas.
Don't let school disciplinary charges lead Kentucky elementary or middle school officials to suspend and expel your student. Don't let your student end up in boot camp, reform school, or another alternative education placement. Instead, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team to help your student defend and defeat Kentucky elementary and middle school misconduct charges. Call 888.535.3686 now to tell us about your student's case, or complete this contact form. Keep your student on the path to success.
Kentucky Middle and Elementary School Discipline Authority
Kentucky takes school misconduct seriously. Kentucky legislators have granted to the state's public and private elementary and middle school officials the power to discipline your student. Several Kentucky statutes require the state's schools to discipline students for bullying, cyberbullying, harassment, felony offenses, and related misconduct. The state legislature has directed the Kentucky Department of Education to assist schools in enforcing their disciplinary codes imposed under the Department's published guidelines. Don't doubt the authority and willingness of school officials to discipline your student. Don't let their goal be to remove what they perceive to be a problem rather than to address and solve your student's educational issues.
Kentucky K-12 Student Attorney Defense Services
No matter your student's elementary or middle school disciplinary issues, the attorneys on our Student Defense Team are prepared to help. Academic administrative matters can be vexing, embarrassing, and confusing. You may not know to whom to turn. You won't generally know the applicable statutes, rules, and regulations. And you may not know the creative options school officials may be willing to offer your student instead of punishment up to expulsion. Our role is to ensure your student's best possible outcome. Here are just a few of the many steps we may be able to take to preserve your student's education in the traditional classroom and avoid embarrassing and crippling alternative placement:
- appear on your student's behalf so that school officials communicate with our attorneys while recognizing how seriously you take the matter;
- obtain and evaluate the disciplinary charges, including the evidence the school claims to have that your student engaged in misconduct;
- answer the disciplinary charges so that school officials know what your student contends and how you intend to defend and defeat the charges;
- communicate and negotiate with school officials for an early voluntary resolution that keeps your student in school and on track with peers;
- invoke the school district's procedures for a disciplinary hearing to cross-examine the school's witnesses and challenge the school's evidence;
- draft and file appeal briefs and argue appeals before the district board, the state board, and other authorities; and
- if your student has already lost the matter and suffered discipline, seek special alternative relief through oversight channels.
Kentucky K-12 Student Defense for Behavioral Misconduct
Our Student Defense Team can help your student challenge and defend behavioral misconduct allegations. Kentucky Department of Education regulations require K-12 schools to discipline for drug possession and distribution, alcohol possession and intoxication, tobacco possession and use, weapons possession, bullying or cyberbullying, gang activity, theft, and vandalism, among other misbehaviors. Schools naturally need to address these significant safety, security, and school order concerns. Yet your student is still developing mentally, emotionally, physically, and socially. Elementary and middle school students don't always have the physiological development to conform at all times to all rules.
Teachers and school staff are supposed to foster, promote, and aid student development. Schools are not penal institutions. They are to educate more than punish. Our attorneys may be able to show school disciplinary officials that your student did not commit the alleged misbehavior, acted under the bullying or other inappropriate influence of others, had an unaccommodated disability contributing to the behavior, was acting out over other issues, or had other mitigating circumstances. We may be able to show that your student needs accommodations, services, and instruction that the law may require the school to offer.
Kentucky K-12 Student Defense for Academic Misconduct
Kentucky elementary and middle schools will also discipline for academic misconduct. Academic misconduct can include copying assignments and other forms of plagiarism, using unauthorized materials for quizzes and tests, getting another student's unauthorized help or the help of another friend, and lying about the circumstances surrounding academic work. Academic misconduct charges don't mean that your student is guilty. They mean that the school believes your student may have cheated but hasn't yet heard your student's side. Our attorneys may be able to help your student prove the charges false or show mitigating circumstances. For example, the school may not have accommodated your student's diagnosed or undiagnosed learning disability. The school may owe your student a manifestation determination review to discover and correct the disability's role in the academic misconduct.
Kentucky K-12 Student Defense for Academic Progress Issues
Kentucky Department of Education regulations also authorize the state's elementary and middle schools to discipline for truancy, absences, and other attendance issues contributing to a lack of satisfactory academic progress. Your student may have low or failing grades. School officials may seek to hold your student back or expel your student to an alternative placement over those academic progress issues. Our attorneys may be able to help your student show that your student's academic progress issues are due to a lack of instructional resources and support, an unaccommodated disability, or other temporary circumstances that you, your student, or the school can correct.
Premier Kentucky K-12 Student Defense Team
Whether you are in Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green, Owensboro, Covington, Hopkinsville, Nicholasville, Elizabethtown, or another Kentucky location, the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available to help your middle or elementary school student defend misconduct charges. Hundreds of students nationwide have trusted the Lento Law Firm Team to defend school charges. Call 888.535.3686 now to tell us about your student's case, or complete this contact form.
