Students in the Wichita, Kansas metropolitan area, at all levels from elementary through secondary schools and into college, face issues getting the disability services and accommodations they need and the law promises them. Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team if you or your minor student are not receiving what the education disability rights laws promise. Call 888.535.3686 now or use our contact form to tell us about your Wichita, Kansas, metropolitan area case. Get the skilled and experienced education attorney representation you need to enforce your education disability rights.
Wichita, Kansas Metropolitan Area Demographics
Wichita, Kansas, lies southwest of the Kansas City metropolitan area and due north of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, on the Arkansas River, at the intersections of Interstate 135 and U.S. 400. The Wichita, Kansas Metropolitan Statistical Area in south-central Kansas has a significant population of just over 650,000 residents. At 37 years, the median age of those residents is well below the 39-year-old national median age, making families generally younger than one finds in other metropolitan areas. Per capita and household income are somewhat below the national median, but so are costs of living, especially housing, making the area a fine place to raise children for the generally sound schooling available in the area. Indeed, high school graduation rates in the Wichita MSA match the national rate, although the percentage of college graduates is a little lower than nationally.
Wichita, Kansas Metropolitan Area Organization
The Wichita, Kansas Metropolitan Statistical Area has four counties, including Butler, Harvey, Sedgwick, and Sumner Counties. The city of Wichita lies within Sedgwick County. About two-thirds of the area's population lies within the boundaries of Wichita, but the area includes other cities and towns of significant size, including Derby, Andover, Valley Center, Park City, Newton, Andover, Maize, El Dorado, Arkansas City, Winfield, and Haysville, as well as dozens of smaller towns. Valley Center and Park City at Wichita's northern boundary, Andover at the eastern boundary, and Derby at the city's southern boundary are Wichita's principal suburbs. Our skilled and experienced attorneys are available in any of these locations to help you or your student enforce education disability rights.
Wichita, Kansas Metropolitan Area Schools
School districts and schools in the Wichita, Kansas Metropolitan Area include Andover Public Schools, Maize Unified School District, Goddard Unified School District, Renwick Unified School District, Valley Center Public Schools, Remington-Whitewater Unified School District, Sedgwick Public Schools, Derby Public Schools, Haysville Unified School District, Circle Unified School District, Halstead Unified School District, Mulvane Unified School District, Augusta Unified School District, and Clearwater Unified School District. Do not hesitate to call us to represent you or your student in any of these school districts or other districts throughout the Wichita Metropolitan Area.
Colleges and Universities in the Wichita Metro Area
Education disability rights extend to protect students attending college or the university. You or your student may instead attend one of the several fine colleges or universities serving the Wichita, Kansas Metropolitan Area. Those schools include public institutions such as Wichita State University and WSU Tech, as well as private institutions such as Newman University, Wichita Technical Institute, and Friends University. The private schools Bethel College, Southwestern College, Butler Community College, Hesston College, and Wellspring School of Allied Health also serve the Wichita Metropolitan Area. Our skilled and experienced attorneys are available to help you or your student with education disability rights issues at any of these colleges or universities or other schools serving the area regionally or remotely.
Rights of Disabled Students Under Kansas Law
You or your K-12 student have the benefit of protections not only under the federal disability rights laws but also under Kansas state law. The U.S. Department of Education has determined that Kansas state law meets the requirements of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for federal funding of state schools. In other words, you or your K-12 student have the same protections under Kansas law, rules, and regulations as the federal IDEA law affords. The Kansas Special Education for Exceptional Children Act and its implementing regulations mimic the federal IDEA law, providing you or your student with significant state law education disability rights that our skilled and experienced attorneys can help you or your student enforce. Those rights include both substantive rights guaranteeing you or your student K-12 disability services and accommodations and procedural protections in the event of a dispute.
Substantive Rights for Disabled Students Under Kansas Law
The substantive rights that the Kansas Special Education for Exceptional Children Act requires the local school district to guarantee and that our attorneys can help you enforce, include the following:
- a state board promulgating regulations holding local schools accountable, under the Kansas Act's Section 72-3405;
- education disability rights requirements that local school boards must meet, under the Kansas Act's Section 72-3410;
- duties that the local school board has to meet the education disability rights, under the Kansas Act's Section 72-3411;
- initial evaluation resources and procedures for children suspected of having disabilities, under the Kansas Act's Section 72-3428;
- special education facilities and services that local schools must provide, under the Kansas Act's Section 72-3413;
- a requirement that the school generally educate the disabled child in the regular classroom, under the Kansas Act's Section 72-3420;
- performance goals and indicators for students with disabilities to measure progress, under the Kansas Act's Section 72-3426;
- assessment programs for students with disabilities, under the Kansas Act's Section 72-3427; and
- an individualized education program or family service plan for each student with disabilities under the Kansas Act's Section 72-3429.
Procedural Protection for Disabled Students Under Kansas Law
The procedural protections that the Kansas Special Education for Exceptional Children Act requires the local school district to provide, and that our attorneys can help you invoke, include the following:
- parental rights of which the school district must notify you and your student when facing an education disability rights dispute, under the Kansas Act's Sections 72-3430 and 3432;
- that the school must complete a manifestation determination review when proposing to change a disabled student's placement because of discipline, under the Kansas Act's Sections 72-3433 through 3437;
- that the school must offer dispute resolution through mediation before a trained mediator, under the Kansas Act's Section 72-3438;
- dispute-resolution procedures that we can invoke on your behalf or your student's behalf, under the Kansas Act's Section 72-3406;
- due-process requirements for disputes over education disability rights, under the Kansas Act's Sections 72-3415 through 3417; and
- appeal rights for parents and students disagreeing with an education disability rights determination under the Kansas Act's Section 72-3418.
Rights of Disabled Students Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
The Kansas legislature adopted the above state law provisions, and the state's Board of Education adopted its implementing regulations, to obtain federal funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA law). In practice, the IDEA law tells state K-12 schools what they must do to continue to receive the substantial federal funding available for disability services and accommodations. The federal government pays for you or your student to have K-12 education disability services and accommodations. Do not let the local school deprive you or your student of the advantages of that federal funding.
A Free Appropriate Public Education Under the IDEA Law
You may wonder just how school officials must decide what services and accommodations to provide a disabled student. The federal IDEA law mandates that K-12 schools receiving its federal funding provide disabled students with a free appropriate public education (FAPE). That construct enables you or your disabled student to look at what non-disabled students are receiving in their public education to ensure that you or your disabled student receive the same K-12 schooling. To ensure a free, appropriate public education, the school may have to provide assistive services, devices, and technology like readers, note-takers, and enlarged text, accommodations like extended exam time and isolated exam rooms, and facility modifications like handicap ramps, bathroom railings, widened doors, and elevators or lifts. Let our attorneys help you advocate for these FAPE rights.
The Least Restrictive Environment Guarantee Under the IDEA Law
The IDEA law also guarantees that a K-12 school receiving federal funding educates disabled students in the least restrictive environment (LRE). The initiative is to ensure that schools do not isolate, restrict, and warehouse disabled students, away from the regular classroom, where they would fail to learn, socialize, and develop like non-disabled students. The local public K-12 school should be providing you or your student not only with instruction in the regular classroom but also with access to gymnasiums, performance stages, playgrounds, bathrooms, laboratories, shops, libraries, and other spaces within the school where non-disabled students learn. Our attorneys can help you or your student enforce the federal IDEA law right to learn in the least restrictive environment.
Rights of Disabled Students Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
You or your student have the benefit of other federal laws, in addition to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), when evaluating and enforcing education disability rights. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects not only employees in the workplace and individuals seeking public accommodations but also students at every level from kindergarten through college or the university. Here is an outline of how our attorneys can help you enforce ADA rights in the Wichita, Kansas, Metropolitan Area.
ADA Qualifying Requirements
You or your student qualify for ADA protections under a different legal framework than the framework the IDEA law provides. The IDEA law mandates services for disabled students. The ADA law, by contrast, is a non-discrimination law that ensures that schools do not discriminate against disabled students relative to non-disabled students. To qualify under the ADA, a student must prove that the student has a qualifying disability. The ADA defines a qualifying disability as a “physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.” To claim ADA protections, the student must first identify a physical or mental impairment and then show that the impairment substantially limits a major life activity. Major life activities can include things like walking, sitting, standing, and moving about, as well as seeing, hearing, and sensing or feeling, as well as mental activities like understanding, concentrating, focusing, and remembering. In the case of the ADA, the obligation is on the student to assert and prove the qualifying disability, whereas under the IDEA law, the school has the obligation to identify qualifying students.
ADA Education Accommodations
The ADA then requires that schools provide students who show that they have a qualifying disability with reasonable accommodations. Accommodating a student's disability may mean modifying the physical facilities, like adding handicap ramps, railings, wider doors, and elevators or lifts. Accommodating a student's disability may also mean providing services like readers and note-takers, or altered materials like larger print. Accommodating a student's disability may also mean changing schedules, extending exam time, or giving a distracted student an isolated exam room. Let our attorneys help you advocate for these and other ADA rights.
Education Disability Rights Services We Provide
Gaining the above education disability rights can be more difficult than it should be. You may already have tried to no effect. School officials do not always listen as they should and do not always consider your disability law rights and then comply. We can help you or your student obtain the rights Kansas state law and federal law together provide. Our attorneys can appear on your behalf or your student's behalf, alerting the school that you have our skilled and experienced representation. We can advocate with the school that you or your student have a qualifying disability that the school has not yet accommodated with appropriate facilities and services. Our attorneys can invoke the procedural safeguards the law guarantees so that school officials consider your evidence and hear your side, making decisions that comply with the law. We can also negotiate with school oversight officials for special relief, even if you have already exhausted all hearings and appeals.
Premier Disability Rights Attorneys for Wichita, Kansas Schools
The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available throughout the Wichita, Kansas Metropolitan Area. We have helped hundreds of students nationwide with disability and other school issues. Call 888.535.3686 now or use our contact form to tell us about your case.
