If your child is attending school anywhere in greater Boston, whether at one of the many colleges and universities or one of the hundreds of grade, middle, or high schools in the area, you are keenly aware of the importance their education has to both their daily sense of well-being and their future. When there are problems at school, they can affect not only their day-to-day life, but also their mental and even physical health. But fixing school-related problems can often feel like an uphill battle, one that pits you against an entire school or even a school district.
Many times it helps to have an ally, someone on your side with the experience and resources to help you advocate for your child's rights. The Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team can be that ally for you and your child. Our education attorneys understand the laws, rules, regulations, and procedures that schools at all levels across greater Boston are required to follow. We can advise you and advocate for your child with their school, and when necessary, can take affirmative steps to enforce your child's rights. Call us today at 888.535.3686, or fill out our contact form, and we will schedule a confidential consultation to learn more about your child's case and tell you more about how we can help.
Student Issues in Schools in the Greater Boston Area
Schools at all levels across greater Boston – which extends all the way into southern New Hampshire – must be aware of and follow a complex web of laws, rules, regulations, policies, and procedures that have been set by federal, state, and even local governments. Taking even a quick look at the department of education websites for both Massachusetts and New Hampshire reveals just how much information there is about the wide range of issues that can affect how students are educated and how they interact with their schools.
School administrators and educators deal with these many requirements on a daily basis, but even they get things wrong sometimes. And sometimes there is the occasional person who just refuses to follow the rules. Whenever things like that happen, students can pay the price. When that student also happens to be your child, what happens at school doesn't stay at school – it can affect your child's whole life, causing pain not only for your child but for your family as well.
It doesn't get any easier in college. The greater Boston area is home to dozens of colleges and universities, including some of the country's best, such as Harvard University, MIT, Boston College, Tufts University, Northeastern University, Boston University, Wellesley College, and many, many others. There are more than a quarter of a million college students studying in and around greater Boston. With so many schools and so many students, there are more opportunities for conflict, more chances for schools to step on their students' rights.
Of course, there are even more students attending grade, middle, and high school in greater Boston. Whether in Boston itself, or one of its many suburbs and nearby cities such as Lowell, Cambridge, Quincy, Newton, or Waltham in Massachusetts, or Dover or Portsmouth in New Hampshire, there are hundreds of thousands of students who go to school daily and each of whom has rights that need to be respected by their schools. When that doesn't happen for whatever reason, someone needs to step in to defend and protect that student's rights.
This is where the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team can help. It's what we do. Our education law attorneys know the laws, regulations, rules, policies, and procedures that schools are required to follow when it comes to educating their students and respecting their students' rights. We can review your child's case with you and let you know what steps can be taken to correct the issues they are having with their school. We can also represent you and your child's interests in discussions with their school to resolve the problems they are having. And when necessary, we will vigorously represent your child through any administrative or court proceedings that may be necessary to assert and protect their rights.
Our attorneys have experience helping students all across greater Boston – and across the country – with a wide range of issues they may face at school. Here are some of the issues we encounter on a regular basis.
Special Education and Disability Rights
Both Massachusetts and New Hampshire have laws that require schools to respect the rights of students with disabilities. Generally, both states enforce the various federal laws that apply to special education students. Public schools are required to evaluate students who may have disabilities to determine whether and to what extent they have one. They also must make reasonable accommodations for the student's disability. And they must provide students with disabilities with what is known as a Free and Appropriate Public Education, or FAPE. The federal laws that apply to these rights include the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans With Disabilities Act.
The Massachusetts and New Hampshire education departments each provide information on their websites about these laws and the rights that they give students who may have or who have been determined to have disabilities and special education needs. If your child is attending school in the greater Boston area and you believe they may have a disability that entitles them to special education benefits, or if they are already receiving those benefits and you have questions about their rights, you may find the answers to your questions through the appropriate DOE website, depending on whether your child attends school in Massachusetts or New Hampshire.
On the other hand, these are both large websites that make a lot of information available to the public. It isn't always easy to find the webpage or document link that will give you the answer you need. Even if you believe you've found the right answer, you may also have doubts about whether you've missed something.
This is where it can be an enormous help to work with one of the experienced education law attorneys from the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team. We work with these issues on a daily basis and have a strong understanding of the laws, regulations, rules, policies, and procedures that apply in special education and disability cases. When you tell us about your child's situation and the questions you have, we will get you the answers you need and, where issues remain, can help resolve those issues with your child's school so that you and your child can both focus on what's important: getting the education they deserve.
Individualized Education Programs and 504 Plans
In cases where a student in the greater Boston area is evaluated and found to have a disability, that student may be entitled to an Individualized Education Program (IEP). The purpose of the IEP is to tailor the child's education to their specific needs based on the determination of what disability or disabilities they may have. The IEP is supposed to be a collaborative document, meaning that parents are meant to have meaningful input into its development. It is also supposed to be revised each year, based on the student's progress over the past year and their anticipated needs for the coming year.
Sometimes, however, parents and the school don't see eye to eye when it comes to their child's IEP. Issues can arise about how the student is to be taught; in what kind of school environment the teaching is to take place; or what accommodations are to be made for the student's disability. Or, one or more of the child's teachers may not follow what the IEP says should happen when it comes to teaching the student.
This is where the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team can step in. We can discuss the situation on your behalf with school administrators and teachers, reminding them of their legal obligations when it comes to the IEP. Very often, that's all that is needed. But when the school fails to respond, we can also take matters to dispute resolution, whether it means taking advantage of administrative dispute resolution procedures that might be available or taking the school or school district to court. Our goal is always to protect your child's rights and to make sure they receive the education they are entitled to under state and federal law.
Students with disabilities are also entitled to what is called a Free and Appropriate Public Education, or FAPE. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires schools to make reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities, addressing their needs with modifications to the way they are taught. Here, too, the steps your child's school may take to meet their FAPE requirements for your child may fall short of what they should be doing. In those cases, the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team can go to bat for you and your child with the school, taking necessary steps to correct the school's mistakes.
Student Discipline
Schools at every level – from college on down – all have codes of conduct, honor codes, or student handbooks that address the type of conduct that the school expects of its students as well as the types of misconduct that the school specifically prohibits. The schools also have procedures that they say they will follow when a student is accused of misconduct. These codes vary from one school to another, or one school district to another.
The Boston public schools, for example, have one code of conduct that is published on the system's website, available in ten different languages. It lists the “Rights of Students,” which include the right not to be discriminated against based on “their actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, handicap, disability, age, socioeconomic status, active military status, or genetics.” The code of conduct also broadly lists the “Responsibilities of Students” and, in more detail, specific grounds for suspensions and expulsions.
Framingham's public schools publish a similar Code of Character, Conduct, and Support that lists “Student Rights and Responsibilities” as well as a set of “Districtwide Rules” that students are expected to follow. It also lists the “Disciplinary Response Cycle,” outlining the steps in the disciplinary process that schools are expected to follow.
No matter where in the greater Boston area your child is attending school, it's important to have an understanding of what their school expects of them and how it will respond if your child is accused of misconduct. Schools don't always follow their own disciplinary procedures, and when they fail to do so and it hurts your child, you may need the help of an experienced education law attorney from the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team to protect your child's rights.
Bullying and Harassment
When it comes to legislating against bullying, both Massachusetts and New Hampshire have anti-bullying laws that require schools to have and enforce anti-bullying policies. As a result, schools across the greater Boston area have anti-bullying policies and are expected to enforce those policies when bullying is reported on campus or among students.
Problems can arise, however, when schools don't follow their own anti-bullying procedures. This can happen, for example, when administrators or teachers fail to take bullying reports seriously. They may not investigate bullying reports, even in cases where there may have been multiple reports from the same student. When that happens, the sooner a parent can intervene the better for the child who is forced to go to school each day and endure an environment where it appears that bullying is being tolerated.
The Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team can help here. Our attorneys can quickly get involved, contacting school authorities and reminding them of their obligations to take effective action against bullying according to their own policies. And when school officials aren't responsive to our efforts, we can take things to court to ask a judge to get involved.
Discrimination
Massachusetts prohibits discrimination when it comes to admission to any educational institution based on “race, color, religious creed, national origin, sex, age, criminal record, or disability.” New Hampshire law also prohibits discrimination in education for those in a long list of similar classes. On top of the types of discrimination prohibited by state law, there are a number of federal laws that protect against discrimination in different ways. These include:
- Title IV and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
- Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
- The Age Discrimination Act of 1975
- Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments of 2008
- The Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act
- USDA Title VI
Because of the many laws that can apply to different types of discrimination, the way to assert your rights in a particular case can vary. When you work with the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team, our experienced attorneys will make sure to follow what is required for your particular situation in order to most effectively seek to resolve it. Our focus at all times is, of course, making sure that your child's rights are respected so that they can focus on learning and growing as a student and as a person.
Student Rights and Free Speech
Students have the same free speech rights that all of us do. There are, of course, limits on free speech rights – yelling “fire” in a crowded theater is the classic example of the type of speech that can be restricted. Schools have a right to maintain order so that they can fulfill their mission of educating students. That means that your child may not always have the right to say what they want whenever they want to say it. They can also be disciplined in cases where their speech may deliberately seek to provoke others or to disrupt the learning process.
That said, school administrators and teachers will sometimes go too far when it comes to trying to regulate student speech. When that happens, the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team is ready to help you protect your student's right to free speech, and to fight against their school's unwarranted efforts to punish them for exercising that right.
The Lento Law Firm Can Protect Your Student's Rights in the Greater Boston Area
No matter where in greater Boston your child is attending school – college, high school, middle school, or grade school – the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team has the experience and knowledge to protect their rights. Our attorneys regularly help students at all levels assert their rights with school authorities and defend against school overreach when administrators or educators fail to follow applicable law or school policy.
We know how important it is to you that your child receive the education they are entitled to under the law. Call the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team today at 888.535.3686 or by filling out our contact form. Tell us about your child's situation, and let us tell you how we can help.
