If you or someone you love has suffered dismissal or suspension from college in California, then expert attorney-advisor help is available. A college or university education can have enormous lifelong value. Don't let academic progression dismissal or expulsion or other discipline for misconduct destroy an education and career. Don't give up just because your California college or university has already given up on you. Instead, preserve and pursue the dream. You likely have avenues for relief about which you are not aware, even if your school has already imposed its discipline on you. Retain national academic attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento and the expert team at the Lento Law Firm. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now.
Challenging Academic Progress Dismissal
All of California's nearly three hundred colleges and universities, both public and private, having students receiving federal loans, must have policies providing for dismissal of students who don't make satisfactory academic progress (SAP). Federal regulation prohibits colleges and universities from extending loans to students whose poor grades, course failures, and course withdrawals suggest the student won't graduate in good standing with the knowledge and skills the education promises. The SAP policies at UC Berkeley, within the vast and prestigious University of California system, and at Cal State Northridge, within the even larger California State University system, are examples. Failure to satisfactorily progress through the program, with high enough grades and completing courses at a consistent enough pace, will result in dismissal.
California colleges and universities, though, sometimes make mistakes applying their SAP policies. They sometimes unfairly dismiss students whose academic performance meets the policy or would meet the policy if the school properly interpreted and applied its SAP policy to grades the student earned in courses the student completed. The SAP policies at many of California's colleges and universities, like the two policies at UC Berkeley and Cal State Northridge just cited, generally permit an appeal of academic progress dismissals. An appeal may show that your school failed to properly count good grades that you earned or courses that you completed for credit. SAP appeals also typically permit a student to show compelling extenuating circumstances excusing the student's lack of progress. Those circumstances can include many unfortunate but relatively common events such as the student's illness, injury, military callup, or death of a family member.
In short, many students at California colleges and universities who suffer academic progression dismissal could have avoided dismissal if they had challenged and appealed under their school's SAP policy. If you face academic progression dismissal at your California college or university, then promptly retain national academic attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento and the expert team at the Lento Law Firm.
Challenging Misconduct Dismissal or Discipline
All of California's nearly three hundred colleges and universities receiving federal funding, both public and private, also have some form of discipline system to address student misconduct. They must do so to satisfy federal Title IX law and other state and federal law, protect students, and avoid liability for various harms. Once again, the vast and prestigious University of California system, with its 280,000 students, and the even larger California State University system, with its nearly 500,000 students, are examples. Each state system has an elaborate student code of conduct.
California's colleges and universities impose misconduct discipline on thousands of students every year. Many of those students suffer suspension or even dismissal. But California's colleges and universities don't always impose discipline fairly. Discipline can occur against hardworking, committed, honest students of good character. Schools make mistakes in the discipline process. They may also act on false or exaggerated accusations and to serve other interests – even to carry out hidden agendas. Don't let your California college or university ruin your education with unfair discipline. Retain national academic attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento and the expert team at the Lento Law Firm.
The Consequences of Dismissal or Discipline
The stakes are high when a California college or university student faces academic progression dismissal or misconduct discipline. California colleges and universities routinely reserve the right to dismiss students for failure to make satisfactory academic progress or expel students for misconduct. Dismissal for failure to progress, or expulsion for misconduct, unless effectively challenged, ends the opportunity to complete the degree that the student was pursuing when dismissed. But dismissal for failure to progress or expulsion for misconduct can also bar transfer to or enrollment in other schools. Dismissal can also easily cost the disciplined student a job and career.
Dismissal and expulsion, though, aren't the only forms of discipline that can bring an education and career to a halt. California's colleges and universities routinely reserve the right to place students on probation for lack of satisfactory academic progress, and to suspend and reprimand students for misconduct, among several other forms of discipline. See the SAP policy at UC Santa Cruz for an example of SAP probation and the UC System's student code of conduct for an example of misconduct suspension or other discipline. Academic probation and misconduct suspensions and reprimands can have the same effect of closing doors to opportunity. Indeed, any warning, probation, or other minor discipline can interfere with honors, awards, scholarships, internships, recommendation letters, references, and job and career opportunities. Don't ignore SAP warnings or probation, or misconduct charges that may lead only to modest discipline. Get a national academic attorney-advisor's expert help.
Appealing SAP Dismissal or School Discipline
If your California college or university has already placed you on probation or dismissed you for unsatisfactory academic progress, or suspended, dismissed, or otherwise disciplined you for misconduct, then you very likely have a right to appeal to challenge the school's action and restore your good standing. An effective academic administrative appeal generally takes the skill of an experienced academic attorney-advisor. If your California school has imposed discipline on you, then promptly retain national academic attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento and the expert team at the Lento Law Firm to pursue your appeal.
Alternative Avenues for Relief
If, on the other hand, you have already appealed your academic dismissal or misconduct discipline but lost that appeal, then don't give up. Other avenues for relief may well exist within your California college or university. National academic attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento has represented hundreds of college and university students in California and nationwide in unfair discipline cases. That experience has helped him and his team form fruitful relationships with many attorneys in school's internal Offices of General Counsel or attorneys who represent the school retained from regional outside law firms. As a national attorney-advisor whom colleges and universities and their attorneys and officials know and trust, Attorney-Advisor Lento has helped hundreds of students, both in California and nationwide, negotiate acceptable relief that preserves the student's opportunity to continue and complete the desired and highly valuable education.
Threatening your school with a lawsuit isn't usually your best option, although Attorney-Advisory Lento and his Lento Law Firm team have sued many schools when the circumstances require and support taking that step. While suing your school may be a necessary option with which Attorney-Advisor Lento and his expert team at the Lento Law Firm can help, Attorney-Advisor Lento has often successfully negotiated a better resolution, one that the affected student can not only live with but deeply appreciate. Attorney-Advisor Lento knows how to help college and university officials see positive options that serve both the student and the institution far better than dismissal, suspension, or other harsh and punitive forms of discipline.
Retain a National Academic Attorney-Advisor
If you are a California college or university student who has suffered academic progress dismissal or misconduct discipline, then don't turn to an inexperienced local lawyer for help. While many lawyers have court skills, very few lawyers have academic administrative skills of the kind necessary to win or negotiate relief from college or university discipline. What you need if you have suffered college or university dismissal or discipline is a national academic attorney-advisor with the knowledge, skills, and reputation to gain you special relief. Your goal shouldn't be to engage your school in local litigation that could last for months or even years, except as a last resort. Your goal should be to gain prompt, private, negotiated relief that gets you back in school to complete your degree.
National academic attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento has committed his nationwide law practice and expert team at the Lento Law Firm to helping students preserve and pursue their education. Whether your dismissal was the result of academic progression issues, academic misconduct charges, behavioral misconduct charges, Title IX allegations, or other forms of alleged misconduct, you may well have relief available to you. Retain national academic attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento and the expert team at Lento Law Firm to review your matter before it's too late. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now.
