High School Junior Avoids Alternative Placement After Manifestation Review
A suburban Midwest high school charged a high school junior with disrupting classes and disrespecting instructors, threatening the student's removal to an alternative high school far from the student's home and away from the student's supportive friends and teachers. The school principal and assistant principal maintained that the student had engaged in repeated outbursts that appeared to intimidate and threaten two classroom instructors while disturbing student peers in the class. The school offered to send the student to the district's alternative high school outside the suburb. When the student's parents retained the Lento Law Firm's student defense team, an investigation confirmed that the student was under an IEP for Asperger's syndrome and autism spectrum diagnoses. The IEP required the school to give the student medication and periodic breaks away from the classroom. Further investigation revealed that the offended instructors had refused those reasonable accommodations, contributing to the student's outbursts. These facts came to light in a manifestation determination the school conducted on the law firm's timely, respectful, and lawful demand. Federal law requires the school to conduct such a determination whenever discipline threatens to alter a student's IEP. Rather than remove the student, the school agreed to comply with the IEP, reinstating the student in the traditional classroom. Subsequent follow-up with the family indicated no further problems for the student who progressed toward graduation from the traditional school.
College Undergraduate Wins SAP Appeal After Showing Adverse Effects of Unaccommodated Disability
A small public university in the Southeastern United States notified a sophomore student that her low and failing grades from the prior two semesters had pulled her cumulative grade-point average to just below the school's required 2.00 / 4.00 minimum for satisfactory academic progress (SAP). The school registrar's notice stated that the student would suffer dismissal at the end of the current semester if she was not successful in either restoring her grade point to the 2.00 minimum or appealing her SAP probation. Concerned that she would not be able to improve her grade-point average unless the university provided reasonable accommodations for her hearing and eyesight disabilities, as she had requested two semesters ago, the student withdrew from her courses for the current semester. When she received further notice from the registrar that her withdrawal would result in SAP dismissal, the student retained the Lento Law Firm. The law firm's research and investigation confirmed not only that the student had requested accommodations but that she had submitted adequate documentation of its need along with reasonable-cost services and equipment to meet the need. The school had refused based on cost when to the contrary low-cost and readily affordable alternatives were available. The law firm simultaneously contacted the university's registrar, accommodations director, and general counsel's office. That contact resulted in a prompt offer of accommodations and withdrawal of the SAP notice in recognition of an effective SAP appeal based on accommodations. The sophomore student resumed her courses the following term, confident that the accommodations would restore her strong academic performance.
Graduate Student Gains Renewed Access After University Approves Service Dog for Diabetes Disability
A large West Coast private university notified a graduate student that it would not permit her to enter her classroom building with her service dog. Although the university had a service dog policy, officials applying that policy did not interpret it to allow a service dog to accommodate the student's diabetes-related disability. Officials construed the policy to apply only to vision-impaired students needing service dog guidance. The university's notification occurred after the graduate student had begun classes with the dog, but an instructor and student objected. The graduate student retained the Lento Law Firm when the graduate student was unable to convince the school of the accommodation, despite an opinion from the student's internal medicine specialist. The service dog had the training to alert the student to her need to eat to avoid a crashing blood sugar that could have sent the student into a coma. The law firm's research and investigation confirmed the student's right to the accommodation, provided the student could supply documentation of the service dog's training and fitness. The law firm's team assisted the student in obtaining and supplying the school with that documentation. The law firm's communications with the school's accommodations officer and assistant general counsel resulted in the school provisionally granting the accommodation with conditions that the service dog could readily meet. The graduate student only missed a few classes without a significant impact on her academic progress. The graduate student returned to classes and completed the term without adverse impact. The graduate student and Lento Law Firm team reviewed and approved the school's modification to its service dog policy, recognizing diabetes as a service dog accommodated impairment.
Professional Program Graduate Gains Residency Renewal After Disability Dispute
The on-site director of a hospital-based residency program associated with a prominent Mid-Atlantic university medical school threatened not to renew a medical graduate's residency over alleged non-performance issues. The resident at first did not understand the allegations, but after private discussions with the medical school's graduate education director learned that the threat had to do with the resident requesting schedule changes to accommodate her disability related to bipolar disorder. The resident had medical documentation confirming that working long shifts without breaks for sleep and nutrition could cause severe bipolar episodes, potentially leading to relationship, performance, depression, and even suicide issues. The resident has graduated from a rigorous medical program with appropriate schedule accommodations but needed those accommodations to continue through the residency program. The on-site director at first maintained that schedule accommodations would be unfair and disruptive. After the graduate retained the Lento Law Firm, the Lento Law Firm's investigation showed that the resident could complete residency hours and assignments without unduly burdening other residents or hospital staff with the requested accommodations. Communications between the law firm, graduate medical education director, and on-site residency program director resulted in the on-site director's agreement not to oppose the resident's renewal. The resident completed the residency year and continued the residency the following year without further disruption. The law firm's ability to document the reasonable nature of the resident's request and to get the two involved directors to communicate effectively with one another were the keys to the successful resolution.
Psychology Program Undergraduate Gains Necessary Exam Accommodations
A small private college in the Northeastern United States admitted a student with an educational disability to an undergraduate psychology program. The student had received exam accommodations for the disability in high school. The exam accommodations involved isolation from distraction during testing plus a small percentage of additional testing time. The student promptly applied to the college's accommodations office for the same exam accommodations. The accommodations office director denied the student's accommodation request based on alleged inadequate documentation. The director maintained that the student needed to submit an updated examination report, even though the student had obtained the submitted report earlier that same year specifically to address her first term in the psychology program. Under the circumstances, the student refused to sit for her midterm exams while she disputed with the accommodations office and sought to schedule a new examination. When her course instructors gave her zero scores for the missed midterm exams, the undergraduate student retained the Lento Law Firm. The law firm promptly communicated with the college's outside retained counsel, who recommended to the accommodations director that the director permit the student to sit for her midterms under the requested accommodations pending completion of the scheduled updated exam. A resolution agreement further committed the college to pay for the arguably unnecessary updated exam and to ensure that the student's delay in taking her midterm exams had no impact on her grades and evaluations. The student completed the midterm exams with strong scores, obtained and submitted the updated report, and completed the term without further interruption. The law firm's contact with outside retained counsel was the key to the student gaining prompt voluntary relief.
Political Science Undergraduate Gains Notetaking and Reader Accommodations After Term Withdrawal
A student entered an undergraduate political science program at a public university in the southwest with multiple learning disabilities accommodation requiring in-class note-taking services and outside-of-class reader services. The student had strong grades, easily meeting academic progress requirements in the first two years. As a junior, though, the student found that the school was unable to find students to volunteer for note-taking and reader services and unwilling to pay for other note-takers and readers, although available and arguably affordable. When the student's academic performance suffered in the first part of the junior year, the student withdrew from all courses, demanding refunds or tuition credits and future accommodations. The school declined refunds or credits and barred the student from enrolling in the subsequent term because of the dispute over the student's tuition obligations and standing. The student promptly retained the Lento Law Firm to regain the ability to enroll without penalty and to gain the university's renewed commitment to providing the required accommodations. After initial communications failed to prompt a resolution, the law firm invoked the university's formal accommodations hearing procedures and submitted extensive prehearing documentation. The hearing panel chair, though, was able to convince university officials to agree to the student's requests and reinstate the student on the requested terms and with the required accommodations. The student's matter did not require a formal hearing. The key to the successful outcome was the law firm's ability to invoke the university's formal procedures and present the student's case before the hearing in a manner that positioned the matter for voluntary resolution.
College Freshman Resumes Classes After Gaining Classroom Wheelchair Access Accommodation
A mid-sized North Central public university admitted a freshman student in a wheelchair to a general studies program. The student had no problem navigating his wheelchair into the classroom building and up the elevator to the third floor, where three of his classes met. But in the third week of classes, the university conducted a fire drill during one of those classes, in which the university shut down the elevator. The building superintendent instructed the student to sit in his wheelchair at the head of the third-floor stairs, ostensibly to await fire personnel in the event of an actual fire. The third-floor stairwell was open rather than behind a fireproof door as the jurisdiction's fire safety code required. When the student brought that deficiency to the university's attention requesting as an accommodation that the university move the class to an available first-floor classroom, the university refused. The student decided for his own safety not to attend further third-floor classes in that building and instead retained the Lento Law Firm. The firm's research into accommodation requirements and local building and fire-safety codes confirmed the student's interpretations as correct. The firm then promptly invoked the university's formal accommodations appeal procedures. The firm further prepared a written presentation for the accommodations appeal panel. The firm's submission, documentation, and related informal advocacy with university officials resulted in the university granting the student's appeal, moving the student's classes to the first floor, and apologizing to the student for the interruption. The university instructed the student's professors to accommodate the student in making up for missed classes. The student passed all courses with strong grades that term. The key to the student's success was the firm's thorough and well-documented presentation.
