You should highly value the Connecticut college or university program you are pursuing or the Connecticut primary or secondary school program in which you have your minor student enrolled. You know what a good education with a clean academic record can mean to advancement in employment, careers, and life. Yet Connecticut schools hold their students to strict academic standards. Missing the marks can result in school suspension or dismissal. Connecticut schools also impose strict student conduct codes, violation of which can likewise result in school suspension or expulsion. Just as Connecticut schools have substantial authority to impose discipline, you and your minor student also have substantial enforceable education law rights to benefit from your Connecticut school program without unlawful harassment, discrimination, or other mistreatment.
Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team now to enforce all education law rights that you or your minor student should be enjoying in your Connecticut school program. Our highly skilled and experienced attorneys are available in the public and private K-12 schools of Bridgeport, New Haven, Stamford, Hartford, Waterbury, Norwalk, Danbury, New Britain, West Hartford, Greenwich, Fairfield, Hamden, Bristol, Meriden, Manchester, West Haven, Stratford, Milford, and other local school districts across the state. We are also available to represent students at the University of Connecticut, Yale University, Fairfield University, Quinnipiac University, Sacred Heart University, the University of Hartford, Wesleyan University, and other Connecticut colleges and universities. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for our premier attorney representation to secure, enforce, and enjoy your full Connecticut school rights.
Common Connecticut Education Rights and Claims
Our attorneys have abundant federal and Connecticut state education laws, rules, and regulations to enforce on your behalf or your minor student's behalf. The following sections address the main categories in which our attorneys represent Connecticut students enforcing and defending their education law rights. We can help you or your minor student with any of these issues or other similar issues arising out of your Connecticut school program at any level or any location across the state.
Connecticut School Disability Accommodations
Your right or your minor student's right to disability accommodations can be among the most significant of rights to ensure full and equal access to Connecticut school programs. Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 USC §12131, requires Connecticut public schools to reasonably accommodate students with disabilities. ADA Title III, 42 USC §12182, expands disability accommodations to Connecticut's private schools. ADA accommodations can go well beyond the traditional handicap ramps, special restroom facilities, elevators, and lifts for wheelchair access. ADA accommodations can also include optical character readers and website modification for the visually impaired, sign language interpreters for the hearing impaired, service animals, and other equipment, technology, and accommodations.
Our attorneys stand ready to invoke Connecticut school procedures to advocate and negotiate for appropriate ADA accommodations for you or your minor student. For instance, the Student Accessibility Services are available at Yale University. We can engage school officials in the interactive process that the ADA requires and, if those communications do not result in appropriate relief, pursue state agency review and civil court relief.
Connecticut Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) & 504 Plans
Disability accommodations are one thing, while special education services are another thing. If your minor student has a qualifying physical, mental, emotional, or cognitive impairment and attends a Connecticut public school, your student may be due special education services. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires Connecticut schools receiving federal funding to provide disabled students a free appropriate public education (FAPE) through special education services federal taxpayers fund. The Connecticut Department of Education maintains a Bureau of Special Education to provide local Connecticut public schools with the technical assistance necessary to carry out IDEA law obligations. Those obligations place the burden on your minor student's Connecticut school officials to refer your student for diagnosis and special education recommendations when suspecting an impairment affecting learning. The IDEA law then requires an individualized education program (IEP) for your student, specifying the special education services. An IEP is similar to a Section 504 plan under the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
Our attorneys are available to help you and your minor student pursue special education services. You have the right to attend your student's IEP team meetings to participate in forming, reviewing, and adjusting your student's IEP. We can advocate on your student's behalf at IEP team meetings. We can also appeal adverse IEP team decisions to district officials and seek further state agency and civil court review as necessary. Our attorneys are available to advocate for your student's special education services in the Bridgeport School District, New Haven School District, Waterbury School District, Hartford School District, Stamford School District, Danbury School District, Norwalk School District, New Britain School District, Fairfield School District, West Hartford School District, Meriden School District, Greenwich Public Schools, or any other Connecticut school district.
Connecticut School Discipline & Expulsions
You or your minor student may instead face Connecticut school disciplinary charges alleging academic or behavioral misconduct. Connecticut's legislature has enacted multiple safe school laws requiring the state's local school districts to adopt and enforce school safety plans. Connecticut grade schools must also adopt and implement a Model Safe School Policy. Connecticut school districts, like the Meriden Public Schools, accordingly routinely adopt Safe School Plans and student codes of conduct governing student behavior. Violation of those plans and codes can result in school suspension, expulsion, and referral for alternative disciplinary placement, otherwise known as boot camp. Your Connecticut college or university will have a similar student code of conduct, like the Student Code at the University of Connecticut. These codes address not only academic misconduct in various forms of cheating, dishonesty, or plagiarism but also behavioral misconduct involving such things as weapons, drugs, alcohol, gang activity, violence, threats, property theft or damage, and misuse of school computers, fire equipment, or facilities.
Don't ignore or minimize your Connecticut school's disciplinary charges. A school suspension or expulsion could result in both delaying or destroying your educational goal and leaving a permanent record of discipline to interfere with jobs, careers, and other opportunities. And don't panic and admit to charges. Instead, get our help evaluating, answering, and defending the charges with your exonerating and mitigating evidence. Even if you or your minor student committed the alleged wrongs, we may be able to negotiate alternative remedial relief in place of punitive sanctions to keep the school record clean.
Connecticut School Bullying & Harassment
You and your minor student should not suffer any bullying, hazing, or other oppression or harassment in your Connecticut school programs. Connecticut Public Act 11-232 substantially amended a prior anti-bullying law to clarify and strengthen the law's provisions, requiring the state's local school districts to adopt and implement anti-bullying policies. Connecticut's legislature also enacted Connecticut General Statutes Section 53-23a to criminalize hazing, which is generally defined as student organization initiation rites subjecting a student to endangerment or injury. The University of Connecticut Student Code, for a higher education example, accordingly prohibits both hazing and bullying. The Meriden Public Schools Code of Conduct, for a primary and secondary school example, also prohibits both hazing and bullying.
Our attorneys stand ready to invoke your Connecticut college or university procedures, or the procedures of your minor student's Connecticut K-12 school, to stop bullying, hazing, or other forms of harassment and intimidation. We recognize the severe harm that can come from school oppression, including not just educational impacts but also physical, mental, and emotional impacts. We can pursue monetary damages if you or your minor student suffered harm from acts school officials should have prevented. We are alternatively available to defend against false, unfair, or otherwise unwarranted harassment charges. Let us help by invoking the appropriate Connecticut education laws and school procedures.
Connecticut School Discrimination Cases
When school oppression occurs based on a student's protected characteristics, federal and Connecticut state school laws can provide additional anti-discrimination remedies and protections. Connecticut Statutes Section 10-15c prohibits discrimination in the state's public school programs based on “color, sex, gender identity or expression, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or disability.” Federal Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 similarly prohibits discrimination based on race, color, and national origin in Connecticut schools receiving federal funds. Title IX further outlaws discrimination based on sex, including sexual assault or harassment, stalking, and dating violence. Your Connecticut college or university will likely have express provisions carrying out these provisions, like the University of Connecticut Policy Against Discrimination, Harassment, and Related Interpersonal Violence. Your minor student will likely have similar anti-discrimination protections in a student conduct code, like the Meriden Public Schools Non-Discrimination Policy.
Our attorneys can help you or your minor student enforce these anti-discrimination provisions through school administrative procedures. We can also seek state and federal agency review and even pursue civil court injunctive relief and money damages in appropriate cases. We also defend Connecticut students against Title IX and other harassment charges.
Connecticut Student Free Speech Rights
You and your minor student also have free speech and other civil rights in Connecticut public school programs at all levels. The Supreme Court cases of Tinker v Des Moines and Morse v Frederick, among other cases, have recognized student free speech and expression rights in public school cases involving speech, dress, symbols, protests, and similar expressive conduct. Your Connecticut college or university likely recognizes First Amendment rights in a student conduct code, free speech policy, or student protest policy, like the University of Connecticut policies on posting flyers, amplified sound, and outdoor activities. These codes and policies, including dress codes and conduct codes at the primary and secondary school level, can interfere with protected First Amendment rights.
Our attorneys have the constitutional law knowledge, skill, and experience to advocate effectively on your behalf or your minor student's behalf for First Amendment rights on campus. We can also assert Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure, as defenses to disciplinary actions involving school discovery of contraband in lockers, backpacks, dormitory rooms, motor vehicles, and other private places. Money damages remedies may also be available under 42 USC Section 1983. Let us help.
Connecticut School Protective Procedures
The above substantive rights don't mean much if your Connecticut college or university, or your minor student's Connecticut K-12 school, do not make procedures available to enforce those rights. You and your minor student have a constitutional right to due process against Connecticut public school actions affecting property and liberty interests in education without fair notice and a fair hearing before an impartial decision maker. Connecticut State Sections 10-233c and 10-233d enshrine those due process protections in provisions requiring Connecticut's public schools to offer fair notice and hearing to students facing school long-term suspension or expulsion. Disciplinary codes like the Student Code at the University of Connecticut also provide protective notice and hearing procedures.
Our Role Enforcing Your Education Law Rights
Our attorneys have the substantial skill and experience necessary to put the above Connecticut school procedural rights and protections to good strategic effect, enforcing your substantive law rights. Due process isn't self-executing. For your best outcome or your minor student's best outcome, you'll need our skilled advocacy, invoking school procedures. We can, for instance, arrange early conciliation conferences to negotiate voluntary charge dismissal. If a formal hearing is necessary, we can call your exonerating witnesses and cross-examine adverse witnesses. If you have already lost your hearing, we can make available appeals or seek alternative special relief through the school's general counsel office. Don't give up. Let us exhaust all available avenues until we achieve your best possible result.
Premier Connecticut Education Law Attorneys
Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team to address Connecticut academic progress issues, disciplinary charges, disability rights, money damages recoveries, and other education law issues. We represent hundreds of students across Connecticut and nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for highly qualified attorney representation.
