Students in California's K-12 schools, colleges, and universities study in highly regulated educational environments. Education laws, rules, and regulations are so common and important because you or your minor student have substantial rights and interests in education. A small violation of rights can lead to big impacts, even lifelong impacts. If you face an education law issue in your California college or university, whether a University of California, California State University, or another campus, or your minor student faces an issue in your student's California K-12 program in a San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, or another school district, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team to address and enforce your rights. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for our strategic and effective representation.
Common California Education Rights and Claims
Both California state law and federal law applicable to California schools grant you or your minor student substantial rights, claims, and interests. Consider the following common claims and how we can help you with those claims, among other claims not listed here. Trust us to get you or your minor student the best and most prompt relief.
California Disability Accommodations & Rights
The first service our attorneys have the substantial skill and experience to supply is to ensure that your school complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA requires schools at all levels to reasonably accommodate students with qualifying disabilities. Title II of the ADA, 42 USC §12131, applies to public school districts, while Title III of the ADA, 42 USC §12182, applies to private school districts. Reasonable accommodations can include modifications to buildings, such as installing lifts, elevators, and ramps, as well as equipment, such as optical character readers or services, such as note-takers or sign language interpreters.
We can help if you have a qualifying disability for which the school has not provided reasonable accommodations. We can invoke your school's procedures to advocate on your behalf for reasonable disability accommodations at any California public college or university, whether from the UC or CSU systems, community colleges like the East Los Angeles College, Santa Monica College, Santa Ana College, or American River College, or private universities like the University of Southern California or Stanford University. Your college or university will have a disability rights office and procedure that our attorneys can trigger to ensure that we can bring your best case for accommodation to the school's attention for prompt resolution. If you face unsatisfactory academic progress charges relating to your disability, we can help you address those issues, too.
California Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) & 504 Plans
Another service our attorneys can provide is to advocate for your minor student to ensure that your student's school complies with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The IDEA law guarantees California K-12 students special education services for qualifying disabilities. The IDEA law is the provision that requires K-12 schools to identify students with disabilities through a Child Find program and then to draft, adopt, and implement an individualized education program (IEP) with parent and student participation. California Education Code Section 56000 et seq. expands on the IDEA law's protections. Section 504 prohibits disability discrimination in K-12 schools and requires schools to implement a Section 504 plan in appropriate cases.
We can help if your minor student has a qualifying disability for which the school is not providing suitable special education services, has not implemented an appropriate IEP, or has not provided reasonable accommodations. California public school districts from San Diego in the south all the way to San Francisco, San Jose, and Sacramento in the north and beyond receive substantial federal funding for special education services. We can invoke your student's IEP rights, attend conferences and hearings, and pursue administrative appeals until your student gets the services your student needs.
California School Discipline & Expulsions
You and your student also have the right to due process when facing academic misconduct, unsatisfactory academic progress charges, behavioral misconduct charges, threatening school suspension, or expulsion. School districts, colleges, and universities across California maintain student codes of conduct under which school officials may charge misconduct and suspend or dismiss students from the school. The Santa Barbara Unified School District is an example of maintaining and enforcing a strict Board Policy 5131 on Student Conduct. The Board Policy and other policies authorize school suspension or expulsion for all manner of alleged wrongs, from drug, weapons, or alcohol possession to acts of violence, property damage, and misuse of school computers.
Our attorneys can answer the disciplinary charges, gather exonerating and mitigating evidence, and appear on your behalf or your student's behalf in disciplinary hearings to present that evidence and challenge the school's incriminating evidence. If you have already lost the formal hearing, we can make available appeals, seek court review, and seek alternative special relief through oversight channels. Do not give up if you or your minor student face serious disciplinary charges or have already suffered discipline up to suspension or expulsion. Let us pursue all avenues until you have achieved the best possible disciplinary outcome.
California School Bullying & Harassment
Your minor student in a California K-12 program also has the right not to suffer bullying, intimidation, hazing, or harassment or to face and suffer other civil rights violations in school. California Education Code Section 234.1 and related laws require California school districts to adopt and enforce anti-bullying measures. California Education Code Section 32051 requires school districts to adopt similar anti-hazing measures, while other California laws prohibit harassment and intimidation in the state's K-12 schools under the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000. The federal Title IX law likewise prohibits sexual assault and other forms of sexual harassment. The Santa Monica High School anti-hazing policy is an example of a measure adopted under those state and federal laws. California school officials should take their anti-harassment duties seriously, but sometimes they do not, for which they may face civil liability and court injunction for remedial and protective relief.
Our attorneys know how to invoke these laws for your student's best protection and even for a civil monetary damages recovery in an appropriate case. We can also help if your student has suffered academic progress issues or retaliatory disciplinary charges while trying to avoid bullying and harassment or acting out as a consequence of harassment. Your student should not have to put up with civil rights violations, especially such serious violations that can frustrate and damage your student's education. Let us help.
California School Discrimination Cases
You and your minor student also have rights under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and California Education Code Section 201 not to suffer unlawful discrimination based on race, sex, disability, and other protected characteristics in your school programs. Those anti-discrimination rights extend not only to admission to school programs but also equal, non-discriminatory treatment in advancement, graduation, discipline, facilities access, housing, transportation, and participation in co-curricular programs. Discrimination can deprive you or your student of important educational advantages and can lead to academic progress and disciplinary issues.
Our attorneys can pursue your Title IX and other anti-discrimination rights through school procedures. Title IX law and regulations require California schools to have elaborate Title IX procedural protections. See, for example, the University of California Berkeley Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, through which we can invoke your Title IX administrative remedies. If you have exhausted your Title IX administrative remedies without relief, we can help you pursue relief through the California Civil Rights Department or the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. We can also pursue your federal and state court remedies for monetary damages for the violation of your statutory anti-discrimination rights. If, instead, you face Title IX sexual misconduct charges, our attorneys can offer you effective defense services. Let us help with your school discrimination issues.
California Student Rights & Free Speech
You or your minor student also have substantial First Amendment free speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of association and expression rights. The Supreme Court has recognized in Tinker v Des Moines and several other seminal cases since Tinker that students retain their free speech and other First Amendment rights in public school programs. Under Tinker and more recent Supreme Court cases like Hazelwood v Kuhlmeier and Morse v Frederick, public school officials must not prohibit student speech unless able to show that the speech materially and substantially disrupts the educational process. First Amendment rights can apply to school dress codes like the one in place at Newport Harbor High School, student protests, student after-school clubs, and other expressive conduct. Violation of First Amendment rights may further give rise to a money damages action under 42 USC Section 1983 and to injunctive relief.
You and your minor student also have constitutional rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments against unreasonable search and seizure for things like school searches of your person, effects, vehicle, dormitory, and other places where you have a reasonable expectation of privacy. If the school denies you or your minor student those rights or your constitutional due process rights, you or your minor student may likewise have a civil money damages action under 42 USC Section 1983.
Our attorneys can help you or your minor student enforce your First Amendment and other civil rights. We can invoke school procedures to seek administrative relief. We can also help you or your student defend misconduct charges that the school issues in an attempt to limit or deny your First Amendment rights. Once you exhaust your school administrative procedures, we may be able to pursue a money damages action in federal court to compensate you or your student for violation of your First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, or other constitutional rights.
California School Protective Procedures
Keep in mind that if you or your minor student have education laws, rights, and claims to enforce or a need to assert education law rights in defense of a school action, then your California public school must provide you with adequate protective procedures to invoke and enforce those rights. For example, Newport-Mesa Unified School District Policy 5144.1 guarantees students' due process relative to suspension and expulsion procedures. Due process typically includes the right to fair notice and a fair forum in which a reasonably impartial decision maker will evaluate and determine your rights.
Our Role Enforcing Your Education Law Rights
Once you retain us, our attorneys will promptly notify your school or your minor student's school of our appearance on your behalf. Our notice will require school officials to respond to us, communicate with us, and allow us to invoke the school's protective procedures on your behalf to advocate your rights. We can help you gather and present evidence of the violation of your education law rights or your minor student's rights. We can present that evidence in informal conciliation conferences. We arrange to attempt an early voluntary settlement of your claims, or we can invoke the formal hearing procedures as necessary so that you have a full-blown hearing where we can help you present your evidence. If you have already lost your hearing, we may be able to reverse the adverse decision with an appeal to a higher district or school official or to a California state agency. These are just a few of the steps our attorneys can take on your behalf.
Premier California Education Law Attorneys
If you or your student face California school, college, or university issues with disability rights, discrimination, harassment, bullying, hazing, free speech rights, or other education law issues, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team. Do not retain unqualified local criminal defense counsel or civil litigators who lack the substantial skill and experience you need for your best outcome. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for our strategic and effective representation.
