When you have a child attending school anywhere in the greater Houston area, you understand how important their education is to their day-to-day well-being and to their future. What happens at school can have a direct effect on your child’s emotional state, and when things are difficult for them at school, you’re likely to see those problems reflected in their behavior and demeanor at home. And when the problems originate from the school’s faculty or staff, it can feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle to convince the school to fix the situation.
That’s where you need the help of the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team. Our experienced education law attorneys are ready to get involved and go to bat for your child with their school. No matter what kind of problem they’re facing – from special education issues, to disciplinary sanctions, to bullying, or more – our lawyers can work with you and your child’s school to resolve them. When necessary, we can take matters to court if the school fails to take action. Call us today at 888.535.3686 or use our contact form to schedule a confidential consultation to learn more about how the LLF National Law Firm can help you and your child with school-related issues.
Student Issues in Schools in Greater Houston
There is no doubt that operating a school at any level – college, high school, middle school, or elementary school – is complicated. There are an enormous number of federal, state, and local laws, regulations, rules, policies, and procedures that school administrators need to be aware of and follow. When they fail to do so and that failure directly affects your child’s educational experience, it can be very frustrating, especially if your first attempts to resolve the matter are unsuccessful.
The Texas Education Agency’s website provides a lot of information that you can use in these kinds of situations, but there is a lot of information available there, and it can be difficult to know that you have exactly what you need when you go to speak with school officials about your child’s situation. Whether your child is enrolled at a school in the Houston Independent School District or a nearby ISD such as Katy, Tomball, Friendswood, or Pearland, they have rights that deserve protection. Sometimes you need help when it comes to explaining to school officials what mistakes they are making and how they should fix them.
Problems with schools ignoring or trampling on student rights also occur at the college level. Greater Houston is home to a number of excellent schools, including the University of Houston, Rice University, Texas Southern University, Prairie View A&M University, and the Lone Star College community college network. Hundreds of thousands of students attend college in Greater Houston each year. These students also have rights that colleges and universities are required to respect and protect.
The LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can help even the playing field when your child’s school fails to provide them with the benefits they are entitled to under the law, or when it violates their rights. Our experienced education law attorneys will carefully review your child’s situation with you, then explain what steps we can take to resolve the problems your child is facing with their school. Many times, we can go with you to meet with school officials and explain to them exactly what they’re doing wrong and discuss how best to resolve matters. In most cases, discussions and negotiations will fix things. But when they don’t, we are ready to go to court to fight for your child’s rights. We know that how your child is treated at school has a direct effect on their present well-being, and on their chances of future success.
While the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can help with a wide range of school-related problems your child may be having, some problems occur more often than others. These include the following:
Special Education and Disability Rights
Texas public schools are required to follow laws that mandate certain types of special education services be provided to students who have been evaluated and found to have any one of a number of disabilities. There are a number of federal laws that apply in this area, and the Texas Education Agency has developed policies and procedures designed to ensure that the schools they are responsible for follow the various federal requirements.
That doesn’t mean that things will always go smoothly when you have a child with special needs. Sometimes it can be a challenge to have your child evaluated to determine what their particular needs may be. Other times, the problem can relate to how their school decides to address those needs when providing them with an education. The LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can help by reviewing your child’s situation with you and helping you determine what steps to take to get them evaluated by their school. When the results of the evaluation are ready, we can help you make sure the school takes appropriate action to address the educational needs identified by the evaluation.
Several federal laws are particularly important when it comes to educating students who have special needs. These include the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans With Disabilities Act. These work together in many cases to provide a range of benefits designed to help special needs students meet their potential when it comes to learning.
Navigating the various federal laws that impact special needs students can be daunting. When you work with one of the education law attorneys from the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team, you will have the benefit of our years of experience in this area. Instead of going into meetings with school officials feeling as though they probably have the upper hand because of their experience with special education issues, you’ll be on even ground because you’ll have someone in your corner who knows exactly what the school is required to do. In our experience, issues tend to resolve themselves more quickly when parents come in with someone on their side who knows the applicable laws, regulations, rules, policies, and procedures as well as – and sometimes better than – the school officials on the other side of the table.
Individualized Education Programs and 504 Plans
In many cases, students who have been evaluated and found to have a disability will be entitled to an Individualized Education Program, or IEP. The IEP is meant to provide students with the specific type of assistance that they need to meet specific educational goals. All of that is to be defined in the IEP, which is updated each year to reflect changes in the student’s progress and skills.
Because the IEP is meant to be a collaborative document and to include input from parents, there is the possibility that there will be disputes about how the IEP addresses the student’s needs. The LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can help resolve those disputes so that parents and school personnel end up with an IEP that everybody can get behind. We can also help when teachers fail to properly implement the IEP or make changes to the way the student is taught without informing parents.
Students with disabilities are also entitled to what is called a Free and Appropriate Public Education (known as FAPE) under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Schools must make reasonable accommodations for the needs of these students by modifying the way they are taught so that the students’ needs are addressed. Here, too, it’s possible for conflict to arise if the school doesn’t make the modifications or accommodations that parents believe the school should make for their child. And here too, the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can help resolve these disputes, so that your child receives the educational benefits they are entitled to under the law.
In most cases, resolving disputes like this will involve discussing matters with the school, but when that fails, our education law attorneys can take matters to court, to ask a judge to order the school to take appropriate steps to implement the accommodations required by law.
Student Discipline
All schools in Greater Houston have codes of conduct that they expect their students to follow. But these codes also apply to the schools, because they will describe the steps that schools will take to investigate and resolve misconduct claims.
Texas law sets forth many of the requirements for student codes of conduct. The Houston Independent School District’s code of conduct implements these requirements and runs for more than 35 pages. It covers various types of possible violations, as well as the five levels of offenses and their corresponding sanctions. It also discusses procedures that are to be used in some cases, and ways that parents can appeal a sanction. The code of conduct for other school districts, such as for the Friendswood Independent School District, go into similar detail, again as required by Texas state law.
It is one thing to have a code of conduct that goes into detail about the different types of misconduct that will result in different levels of sanctions against the student. It is another thing for school personnel to apply the code of conduct fairly or to follow the procedures the code of conduct has in place for different levels of accusations. It is not unusual for school personnel to make mistakes or even to discriminate in how they discipline different students.
When that happens, the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can help. In fact, any time your child is facing school discipline that could result in serious consequences – such as suspension or expulsion – our attorneys can help protect your child’s rights and make sure the school follows the proper procedures for determining whether the accused misconduct actually happened and, if so, what the proper response should be.
Bullying and Harassment
Texas law requires schools to prohibit bullying and provides strict punishments for students found to have been engaged in bullying of other students. The Texas Education Agency encourages parents who are concerned about bullying to meet with school officials to discuss those concerns. The problem is that in some cases, school administrators won’t take appropriate or effective action to put a stop to bullying among students. That can be devastating for a child who has to wake up each morning worried that the day will bring another round of bullying at school. No child should have to deal with that kind of pressure on a daily basis.
This is where the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can help. We can be your child’s advocate with the school, providing the school with information about the bullying, and explaining to them what steps they need to take to bring it to a halt. When the school fails to do so, we can take things to court to secure an order directing the school to remedy the bullying and, in some cases, to collect damages for the harm caused because of the school’s failure to do so.
Discrimination
There are a number of federal laws that protect students in Greater Houston from a number of types of discrimination at school. These laws include:
- Title IV and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
- Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
- The Age Discrimination Act of 1975
- Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments of 2008
- The Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act
- USDA Title VI
Of course, not every federal law applies in every case, and it can sometimes be difficult to identify which law or laws to rely on when trying to get your child’s school to remedy a discrimination situation. The LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can tell you which laws are likely to apply in a particular case where your child is being discriminated against at school. We can also go to bat for your child with their Greater Houston area school, both by discussing the matter with school officials to try to resolve it and, where that is not successful, by taking the school to court.
Student Rights and Free Speech
Students have free speech rights just as everyone else does. But schools also have the right to maintain order so they can fulfil their purpose of educating large groups of children. Sometimes there is a clash, and students who are properly exercising their right to free speech in the school context are improperly punished for doing so. When that happens, the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team is ready to go to bat for the students, protecting their rights and defending them against misconduct allegations.
The LLF National Law Firm Can Protect Your Student’s Rights in Greater Houston
If you are the parent of a student attending school from the college level on down anywhere in the Greater Houston area, the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team is here to protect your child’s rights and to step in when their school is ignoring those rights, unfairly disciplining your child, or is discriminating against your student. We can help with a wide range of school-related issues, including special education, school discipline, chronic bullying, discrimination, or any other area where your child is facing unfair or unequal treatment at school.
Call the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team today at 888.535.3686 or fill out our contact form and we will schedule a confidential consultation. Tell us about your child’s case, and let us tell you how we can help.