Colorado school programs from the K-12 level to college or university can be tremendously rewarding. In the best scenario, a Colorado education can set you or your minor K-12 student up for lifelong success. However, as rewarding as a Colorado school program can be, problems with school can just as effectively derail a student's hopes, dreams, and ambitions. Academic progress issues, academic misconduct, and school disciplinary charges can lead to school suspension and expulsion, and in the case of a K-12 student, a transfer to a disciplinary school or boot camp. Don't let school issues derail your Colorado college or university education or the K-12 education of your minor student. Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team to help you address and favorably resolve school issues. Our attorneys are available in the public or private K-12 schools of Denver, Colorado Springs, Aurora, Fort Collins, Lakewood, Thornton, Arvada, Westminster, Pueblo, Greeley, Centennial, Boulder, Highlands Ranch, Longmont, and other districts across the state. We are also available at the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, the University of Denver, Regis University, the University of Northern Colorado, and other Colorado colleges and universities. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for effective representation by our skilled and experienced attorneys.
Common Colorado Education Rights and Claims
Colorado state education laws and federal education laws guarantee you and your minor students certain enforceable rights, claims, and protections. Our Education Law Team attorneys can help you or your minor student with any of these issues and other similar issues at any location across Colorado.
Colorado School Disability Accommodations
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires Colorado schools to reasonably accommodate students who have qualifying disabilities. The ADA's Title II, 42 USC §12131, reaches Colorado public schools, while the ADA's Title III, 42 USC §12182, reaches Colorado private schools. The ADA not only requires schools to provide wheelchair-accessible facilities, including lifts, elevators, bathrooms, and handicap ramps but also to provide certain equipment. Your Colorado school may have to modify its website to accommodate the visually impaired, provide sign language services for the hearing impaired, or provide other services and equipment. The Colorado Department of Education maintains Specially Designed Instruction Standards to ensure that access. See, for a local school example, the Accessibility Information, including digital accessibility supplied by the Denver Public Schools.
Let our Education Law Team advocate for you or your minor student to overcome access issues at your Colorado school campus. We can invoke your school's procedures to ensure that we can reach the proper school authorities and advocate and negotiate for appropriate accommodations. If school officials are unwilling to meet ADA requirements, we can invoke state agency resolution procedures and, if necessary, seek review and relief in the civil courts. Don't forgo educational disability rights. School is hard enough without disability access issues. Get our help.
Colorado Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) & 504 Plans
Your minor student's disability rights can extend to having special education services throughout your student's Colorado K-12 student, supported by generous federal funding. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), together with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, requires Colorado K-12 public schools to meet certain special education standards to qualify for federal funding. The Colorado Department of Education maintains an Office of Special Education to provide local Colorado school districts with the technical assistance to meet federal special education requirements. Your minor student's local school officials should be meeting federal special education standards, including identifying at school cost whether your student qualifies and, if so, the special education services your student deserves. If your student qualifies, your student should have an individualized education program (IEP) or similar Section 504 plan. You have the right to attend IEP team meetings and have a hand in developing, reviewing, and adjusting your student's IEP.
Get our help if your student's Colorado K-12 school refuses to send your student for professional disability evaluation at school expense, refuses to adopt and implement an appropriate IEP, or refuses to adjust an IEP according to your student's developmental and educational needs. We can attend IEP team meetings, appeal IEP team decisions through district procedures, and seek state agency and civil court review as necessary. Our attorneys are available in the Denver Public Schools, Jefferson County School District No. R-1, Douglas County School District No. RE-1, Cherry Creek School District, Aurora Joint School District No. 28, Adams 12 Five Star Schools, St. Vrain Valley School District, Poudre School District, Boulder Valley School District, Academy School District No. 20, District 49, and Colorado Springs School District No. 11, or any other Colorado school district.
Colorado School Discipline & Expulsions
School suspension or expulsion is another issue that Colorado students can face at any level. Expelled Colorado K-12, students can also face transfer to an alternative disciplinary school, otherwise known as boot camps or reform schools, under Colorado Statutes Section 22-33-105. Colorado schools at all levels have learning benchmarks or satisfactory academic progress (SAP) requirements for retention, advancement, and graduation. You or your minor student could face suspension or dismissal for course failures, low cumulative GPA, or too many withdrawals over too long of a time. Colorado K-12 students can also face attendance, tardiness, and truancy issues.
Colorado school suspensions also occur over academic misconduct like cheating and plagiarism and behavioral misconduct involving weapons, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gang activity, violence, theft, vandalism, and similar wrongs. Colorado schools at all levels adopt student codes of conduct to identify and punish the prohibited wrongs. The University of Colorado Boulder Student Code of Conduct is an example, prohibiting a long list of wrongs punishable with suspension or expulsion. The Student Code of Conduct for the Denver Public Schools is an example at the K-12 level, addressing alcohol, drugs, bullying, and other wrongs.
If you or your minor student face misconduct charges, don't ignore them. But also, don't give up and give in. Charges are only allegations, not findings. We may be able to present exonerating and mitigating evidence showing that no punishment is necessary or appropriate. Our attorneys are often able to negotiate alternative remedial measures, even in cases where the student must admit having committed the alleged wrong.
Colorado School Bullying & Harassment
Because of the notoriety of several very serious incidents, state laws nationwide now address and prohibit bullying, hazing, and harassment. Colorado has followed the national trend, adopting Colorado Revised Statutes Section 22-2-144 to require local public schools to adopt anti-bullying measures. The Colorado Department of Education accordingly adopted a Model Bullying Prevention Policy for school districts to follow. The Denver Public Schools, for one prominent example, followed suit by adopting an anti-bullying policy. Colorado has also adopted an anti-hazing measure, codified in Colorado Revised Statutes Section 18-9-124. The University of Colorado Boulder, for one among many examples, followed suit, adding an anti-hazing provision to its Student Code of Conduct.
Our attorneys stand ready to help you or your minor student enforce these and other anti-bullying, hazing, and harassment rights. We can invoke your Colorado school's procedures both to raise your right to protection and to defend any charge against you that arises out of the circumstances of your alleged bullying, harassment, or hazing. Don't go without our skilled and experienced representation. And don't let bullying, intimidation, or harassment affect your educational rights, success, and access.
Colorado School Discrimination Cases
You or your minor student may also have anti-discrimination rights to enforce at your Colorado school. Several Colorado state laws address unlawful discrimination in Colorado public and private schools. Taking those laws together, Colorado prohibits school discrimination based on “disability, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, national origin, or ancestry.” Federal Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also prohibits sex discrimination in education. Title IX extends the protection beyond sex discrimination in admissions and program participation to require schools to adopt and implement measures to protect against sexual assault and harassment, stalking, and dating violence. Colorado schools routinely profess compliant Title IX measures. For example, the Colorado State University Code of Student Conduct refers to the university's Title IX protections.
Our attorneys stand ready to help you or your minor student put an end to your Colorado school's discriminatory practices. Those practices may include not only school admission and program participation but also unlawful discriminatory practices in discipline, school housing or transportation, and other school programs and facilities. We know how to invoke the appropriate school administrative procedures. We can also seek state or federal agency and civil court review and relief, including pursuing money damages, in appropriate cases.
Colorado Student Free Speech Rights
Colorado schools may also interfere unduly and unlawfully with important student free speech rights. Schools have a natural interest in restricting student conduct and speech to ensure the orderly operation of instructional programs. However, the Supreme Court, in cases like Tinker v Des Moines and Hazelwood v Kuhlmeier, has held that public school students retain rights of free speech, association, and expression. Colorado schools like the University of Denver may adopt student protest policies to preserve school operations. The Denver Public Schools likewise adopt policies on student expression. However, those policies must permit free speech and expression for non-disruptive students.
Don't let your Colorado college or university or your minor student's Colorado K-12 school violate free speech rights. Let us help you enforce those rights through school administrative procedures and the civil courts if necessary. You and your minor student also have other constitutional rights, such as a Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure. We can help you or your minor student enforce those other rights, including pursuing a monetary damages recovery under 42 USC Section 1983 in appropriate cases.
Colorado School Protective Procedures
Colorado public school students at all levels, from K-12 through college and graduate school, have constitutional rights to due process. Your Colorado college or university, or your minor student's Colorado K-12 school, should not be imposing long-term suspension or expulsion without first providing fair notice of the charges and a fair hearing before an impartial decision maker. Colorado Revised Statutes Section 22-32-109.1 recognizes that constitutional guarantee to due process for Colorado K-12 students facing school removal. The Colorado State University Code of Student Conduct is an example of a promise by a higher education institution to provide fair notice and hearing rights to students facing misconduct charges.
Our Role Enforcing Your Education Law Rights
Our attorneys have the academic and administrative knowledge, skills, and experience to turn promises of due process into your most favorable results. Due process is not generally self-executing. You or your minor student need our skilled representation to reach the right school officials in a timely manner with the right requests and presentations for the best possible resolution. We can often arrange early voluntary dismissal of academic progress or misconduct charges in favor of remedial relief. If school officials insist on proceeding with formal charges, we can make your formal hearing presentation while cross-examining adverse witnesses and challenging other adverse evidence. If you have already lost your hearing, we can take available administrative appeals and, if you have already lost your appeal, pursue civil court relief in appropriate cases. We have also had success reaching out to the school general counsel or other oversight officials to negotiate alternative special relief.
Premier Colorado Education Law Attorneys
Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team if you or your minor student face Colorado K-12 school, college, or university issues threatening school suspension, expulsion, or other loss or discipline. We can help with academic progress issues, disciplinary charges, issues with disability accommodations or special education services, and matters involving discrimination, bullying, harassment, hazing, or other education law issues. We have successfully represented hundreds of students across Colorado and nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for our premier attorney representation.
