Greater Philadelphia Education Lawyers

As the parent of a child attending school in the Greater Philadelphia area, you naturally have a strong interest in making sure that nothing stands in the way of your student receiving the best education they can. Whether they're in college or are a high school, middle school, or grade school student, each year brings them one step closer to completing their education and moving forward with their career. That's why, when issues arise along the way that stand in the way of their education, it's important to take steps to try to correct them.

But it can often be a challenge to get schools to correct mistakes they are making when it comes to educating your child or respecting your child's rights. That's why it can often make sense to have an experienced ally on your side – namely, one of the education law attorneys from the LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team. We know what schools are required to do when it comes to respecting student rights and providing students with a proper education. Call us at 888.535.3686 or fill out our contact form, and we will schedule a confidential consultation to discuss your child's situation – and to let you know what we can do to help.

Student Issues in Schools in Greater Philadelphia

The Greater Philadelphia area extends across the Delaware River into parts of southwestern New Jersey, and south into northern Delaware and northeastern Maryland. There are many very good universities in this region, including the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel, Villanova, Temple, Rutgers-Camden, and the University of Delaware. Swarthmore and Haverford colleges are also in the Greater Philadelphia area. Together, colleges and universities in Greater Philadelphia are home to several hundred thousand college students.

In addition, of course, there are hundreds of grade schools, middle schools, and high schools in Greater Philadelphia that educate more than 700,000 students each year. Whether they are in the Philadelphia school system or schools in cities such as Chester, King of Prussia, or Bensalem Township in Pennsylvania, Camden or Cherry Hill in New Jersey, Wilmington in Delaware, or any other city or township in the region, students have rights that schools need to respect.

Respecting student rights isn't always easy for schools to do, and administrators and teachers sometimes make mistakes. Schools at all levels need to follow a complicated set of federal, state, and sometimes local laws, regulations, and rules that affect not only how they educate their students, but how the schools respond to students with special needs, students who are accused of misconduct, and students who face discrimination or bullying.

When schools get it wrong and fail to follow the law or even their own procedures, the LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team can help. Our education law attorneys have a comprehensive understanding of the laws, regulations, rules, policies, and procedures that schools at all levels must follow when it comes to educating and interacting with their students. We can discuss your child's situation with you and explain what we can do to help resolve it. Sometimes that simply means being part of the discussion with school officials, where we explain the school's mistakes and how those mistakes should be corrected. At other times, it means we take the matter to court or an administrative hearing to ask a judge to issue an order directing the school to remedy the problem.

Some of the issues that the LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team can help with include the following:

Special Education and Disability Rights

Pennsylvania and other states have adopted laws that require public schools to evaluate students who may have disabilities and, where the evaluation identifies one or more disabilities, to provide special education services to the students that address their disabilities. The states essentially adopt and implement federal laws that cover this area, and that require schools to provide students with disabilities what is called a Free and Appropriate Public Education, or FAPE.

Federal laws that apply in this area include the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Pennsylvania's Department of Education provides information on its website about the special education services that state schools are required to offer. The departments of education for the other states in the Greater Philadelphia area – Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey – do as well. This information may be useful in certain cases, but other times, because there is so much information available, it can be difficult to feel comfortable that you have the right answer for your particular situation.

This is where the LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team can help. Our experienced attorneys are familiar with the various requirements that apply to special education in each state in the Greater Philadelphia area, and can review your child's situation with you and help you understand what the options are for resolving it. When you work with one of our attorneys to help fix your student's special education-related problem, you will have the peace of mind that comes when you have someone on your side who works with these issues daily, and who knows what can be done to correct a bad situation for your child.

Individualized Education Programs and 504 Plans

When a student in Greater Philadelphia is evaluated and found to have a disability, the student will in many cases be entitled to an Individualized Education Program (IEP). IEPs, properly implemented, will tailor the child's education to their disability or disabilities. They are collaborative documents, created for each student individually, and should be revised yearly as the child progresses through their school years.

Parents are meant to be involved in the creation of their child's IEP. This can be a good thing. Parents often have insights into a child's behavior that teachers and school personnel don't. But it can also be a source of conflict if parents disagree with all or part of their child's IEP. They may disagree about the teaching methods to be used to educate their child, or about when the student should be “mainstreamed”, taught in the classroom with other students. Or teachers may not follow the IEP's directions when it comes to how the child is to be taught.

This is where the LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team can help. Sometimes, it's enough to raise the issue with the school and initiate a discussion where we remind school officials of their legal obligations to special needs students, and work with them to correct the issues that our student client is facing. When that doesn't work, we can take matters to the appropriate administrative dispute resolution forum or to court. Our focus is on your child's well-being and using our knowledge and skills to help remove any improper barriers to their learning as quickly as possible.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires schools to provide students with disabilities with what is called a “Free Appropriate Public Education,” or FAPE. This includes making reasonable accommodations for their disabilities. When schools fail to do this, the LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team is ready to step in, either to negotiate a solution or to take matters to court to force the school to fix things.

Student Discipline

Every school, from college on down, has a code of conduct of some sort that students are expected to follow. The School District of Philadelphia has its own code of conduct that covers matters such as attendance, dress, bullying, harassment, and other topics. The Cherry Hill, New Jersey public schools have their own conduct codes – one each for the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Each school system's code of conduct is going to be somewhat different, but most of them will cover the same topics to some extent.

Codes of conduct typically describe the procedures that schools will use to investigate misconduct claims and to resolve claims that they believe have merit. Problems can arise, however, when school personnel fail to follow those procedures or when they discipline students unfairly. For example, a student who is labeled as a “problem” by teachers or administrators might be punished more quickly and more severely than other students who are accused of the same types of misconduct. Or, the school will shortcut the investigation and ignore evidence that might exonerate a student, then move forward with the disciplinary process.

It is this uneven and unfair application of the school's code of conduct that can be difficult for students and parents to address. School personnel will often argue that the student who was disciplined deserved the punishment, even if not every step was followed by school personnel in the course of the disciplinary process. That's where the LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team can help. We regularly work with school code of conduct issues, and can quickly evaluate whether your child's school followed its own procedures when it disciplined your child. When the school hasn't done so, we can take steps ranging from negotiation to court action to protect your child's rights.

Bullying and Harassment

Pennsylvania requires schools to have anti-bullying policies in place, and has a law against harassment that covers bullying-type behavior. New Jersey has an Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights and other anti-bullying laws. Delaware has laws against bullying as well as laws requiring schools to adopt anti-bullying policies. Maryland also has laws requiring schools to adopt anti-bullying policies. But even with all of this increased awareness of bullying in schools, it is not unusual to find situations where schools fail to act against bullies even after the bullying has been reported to the school.

When that happens, it helps to take the issue to the school sooner rather than later. Each day that a child has to go to school in fear of being bullied is one day too many. The LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team can help by working with you to gather the information about the situation, meeting with school officials, explaining to those officials how they are failing to properly respond to the situation and, where necessary, filing a lawsuit to ask a judge to order the school to act.

Discrimination

Both state and federal laws prohibit a number of different types of discrimination against students. The LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team is ready to go to bat for your child in cases where their school is illegally discriminating against them. Among the federal laws that protect against discrimination in schools are the following:

  • 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

Knowing which law applies in a particular situation and what steps to take to enforce the law against the school in your case can be difficult. The attorneys who are part of the LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team have a detailed understanding of these and other laws that may apply, and can review the circumstances that apply to your child and take appropriate action against the school. Our number one goal is to make sure your child's rights are respected at school so that your child can focus on learning and developing as a student and as a person.

Student Rights and Free Speech

Students have free speech rights just as everyone else does. But schools also have rights – to maintain order, so that they can fulfill their mission of educating students. That means, of course, that students don't always get to say what they want whenever they want to. But it also means that school personnel sometimes are too eager to step on students' free speech rights in the name of maintaining an atmosphere that supports the educational process.

When schools are too aggressive with punishing or prohibiting student speech, the LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team can help. We can be with you when you meet with school officials to discuss the situation, and can offer our understanding of what the school's legal obligations are when it comes to protecting student speech and other rights in the school setting. Where the school continues to act illegally to prevent students from exercising their rights, or where it improperly punishes students for doing so, we can take matters to court to remedy the situation.

The LLF Law Firm Can Protect Your Student's Rights in Greater Philadelphia

If your child is attending school anywhere in the Greater Philadelphia area – at any level, from elementary school all the way to college – the LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team is able to help protect their rights. Our experienced education law attorneys understand what their school's obligations are when it comes to the various types of rights that students may have in a particular situation. We know what steps to take to remedy situations where schools are ignoring student rights, unfairly punishing students, or discriminating against students in violation of one or more state or federal laws.

It can be extremely difficult for your child to go to school day in and day out while at the same time having to deal with the school's failure to properly follow any law, regulation, rule, policy, or procedure. When that happens, contact the LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team for help. We can be reached at 888.535.3686, or you can fill out our contact form, and we will schedule a confidential consultation where you can tell us about your child's case, and we can tell you how we can help. Let us help your child get the education they are entitled to!

Contact Us Today!

If you, or your student, are facing any kind of disciplinary action, or other negative academic sanction, and are having feelings of uncertainty and anxiety for what the future may hold, contact the Lento Law Firm today, and let us help secure your academic career.

This website was created only for general information purposes. It is not intended to be construed as legal advice for any situation. Only a direct consultation with a licensed Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York attorney can provide you with formal legal counsel based on the unique details surrounding your situation. The pages on this website may contain links and contact information for third party organizations - the Lento Law Firm does not necessarily endorse these organizations nor the materials contained on their website. In Pennsylvania, Attorney Joseph D. Lento represents clients throughout Pennsylvania's 67 counties, including, but not limited to Philadelphia, Allegheny, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Chester, Dauphin, Delaware, Lancaster, Lehigh, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, Schuylkill, and York County. In New Jersey, attorney Joseph D. Lento represents clients throughout New Jersey's 21 counties: Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Salem, Somerset, Sussex, Union, and Warren County, In New York, Attorney Joseph D. Lento represents clients throughout New York's 62 counties. Outside of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, unless attorney Joseph D. Lento is admitted pro hac vice if needed, his assistance may not constitute legal advice or the practice of law. The decision to hire an attorney in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania counties, New Jersey, New York, or nationwide should not be made solely on the strength of an advertisement. We invite you to contact the Lento Law Firm directly to inquire about our specific qualifications and experience. Communicating with the Lento Law Firm by email, phone, or fax does not create an attorney-client relationship. The Lento Law Firm will serve as your official legal counsel upon a formal agreement from both parties. Any information sent to the Lento Law Firm before an attorney-client relationship is made is done on a non-confidential basis.

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