The Illinois State Board of Education has the laudable goal of ensuring that all districts and schools have the resources, knowledge, and expertise necessary to provide every student with a safe, sound, and appropriate education. Illinois certainly has the education laws, rules, and regulations, along with the federal education laws, rules, and regulations with which Illinois schools must comply to meet reasonable student expectations. Illinois K-12 schools, colleges, and universities are among the most highly regulated institutions anywhere you may expect to go. You and your minor student have legal rights. The only question is whether your school will respect those rights. No state has a perfect school system. Illinois schools at all levels violate student rights, ignore their legal obligations to students, and require students to obtain skilled representation to enforce their rights.
Fortunately, our highly qualified representation is readily available to you and your minor student. If you face education law issues at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, Loyola University Chicago, DePaul University, Bradley University, Illinois State University, or another fine Illinois college or university, call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team. We are also available to represent your minor student in any Illinois school district, including the Adlai E. Stevenson High School District No. 125, Glenbrook High School District 225, Evanston Township High School District No. 202, Township High School District No. 113, Hinsdale Township High School District No. 86, Community High School District No. 128, and other fine districts across the city and state. Get our strategic and effective representation. You won't regret enforcing your education law rights.
Common Illinois Education Rights and Claims
Our highly qualified attorneys know the Illinois education laws and federal education laws and have the substantial skills and experience to put those laws to their best effect on your behalf or your minor student's behalf. We can promptly invoke your school's administrative procedures to communicate, advocate, and negotiate for the school's voluntary relief. We can also seek state and federal agency review and enforcement of your statutory and regulatory rights. Our attorneys will also litigate your education law matter through the state and federal courts as necessary to achieve your best possible outcome. Let us help with any education law issue, including the following common rights, claims, and issues.
Illinois Disability Accommodations & Rights
Disability rights and accommodations are a common issue for Illinois students from the K-12 level through college or university and into graduate and professional school programs. The federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that Illinois schools and schools in other states provide reasonable accommodations to enable students with qualifying disabilities to obtain equal access to educational facilities and services. Both mental and physical conditions can qualify as a protected disability when the disability substantially impairs or limits such functions as walking, sitting, standing, lifting, hearing, seeing, speaking, or cognitive functions like concentrating, processing, reading, and working within strict time limits. Accommodations go well beyond handicap ramps to include enlarged text, optical character readers, note takers, service animals, extra exam time, flexible schedules, and modified seating, lighting, or other classroom or environmental conditions.
The Illinois State Board of Education recognizes the ADA obligation of its schools to reasonably accommodate students. State Board of Education Administrative Code Part 1300 authorizes a grievance procedure to resolve ADA disputes over the accommodation of student disabilities. Illinois colleges and universities also recognize their ADA obligations to students. For example, the Illinois State University ADA policy assures disabled students of reasonable accommodation. Our attorneys stand ready to invoke your school's administrative procedures to obtain the relief you need. We can also take your matter or your minor student's matter to the state or federal agency level and into the courts if necessary. Get our help if your school is denying you reasonable accommodations.
Illinois Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) & 504 Plans
Your minor Illinois K-12 student also has the right to special education services for emotional impairment, attention deficit disorder (ADD), hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and other learning disabilities. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the law that requires Illinois K-12 schools to identify students who may have a learning disability, refer them for diagnosis, and provide special education services under an individualized education program (IEP). Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a related law requiring 504 plans for students needing services or accommodations for equal access to education. The Illinois State Board of Education expressly recognizes its legal obligation to support its local K-12 school districts in their special education services. The State Board helps ensure that its districts properly apply and spend substantial federal funding on special education services.
We stand ready to appear on your minor student's behalf to obtain the appropriate special education services. Our attorneys can help you call, arrange, and attend IEP and 504 plan meetings. We can also appeal adverse IEP team decisions through the local district's dispute resolution procedures. See, for example, the Evanston Township High School District's commitment to providing a full continuum of special education services. If your student's district officials refuse to provide the appropriate special education services, we can appeal to the state agency and seek federal agency review and court relief. Don't let your student go underserved, fall behind peers, and fail to advance and timely graduate. Let us help.
Illinois School Discipline & Expulsions
Illinois K-12 school, college, and university students can also face issues with school discipline, including suspension and expulsion, and in the case of K-12 students, referral to an alternative disciplinary school. Illinois colleges and universities, like Northwestern University, publish handbooks or policies with elaborate student codes of conduct, violations of which can result in school suspension or dismissal. The Illinois Community High School District No. 128 Discipline Procedures are a similar example at the K-12 level, authorizing discipline for possession of guns, drugs, or alcohol and committing or threatening acts of violence, gang activity, and property damage or theft, among many other wrongs. The Illinois State Board of Education carries out the state's Safe Schools Law by maintaining Regional Safe Schools Programs to impose discipline against students alleged to endanger the school community.
Let us help if you or your minor student face school disciplinary charges, risking school removal. Our attorneys have helped hundreds of students at all levels avoid school suspension or expulsion, often through early intervention and negotiation with school officials. We can often propose and negotiate remedial measures that satisfy school interests while aiding you or your student in avoiding future allegations of wrongdoing. You and your student have constitutional rights to due process to challenge school removal. The Illinois State Board of Education recognizes those constitutional rights by providing substantial guidance on school discipline. We can invoke your procedural rights to advocate and negotiate for retention in the regular classroom and school program. Let us help you and your minor student defend and defeat disciplinary charges.
Illinois School Bullying & Harassment
Your Illinois K-12 student also has the right to attend school free from bullying, cyberbullying, harassment, hazing, and other forms of intimidation. For example, Illinois Compiled Statutes Section 27-23.7 requires the state's K-12 schools and their districts to adopt and enforce anti-bullying measures, including addressing cyber-bullying issues. The statute recognizes that bullying is often associated with drugs, weapons, gang activity, and other anti-social behavior. Stop bullying, and you'll stop a lot of other problems. Illinois school districts, like the Evanston Township High School District, accordingly adopt anti-bullying, harassment, and intimidation policies. Federal Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 likewise prohibits sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating violence, and stalking. Illinois schools at all levels implement Title IX policies like the one applicable at all University of Illinois System campuses.
Don't let your student become a victim of bullying. Bullying can not only interfere with your student's learning but also lead to serious personal injury, including assaults, sexual harassment, and mental and emotional distress. Retain our attorneys at the first sign that your student's Illinois K-12 school is not treating bullying seriously. We can invoke the appropriate school administrative procedures, take the matter to the district, and pursue both injunctive relief and money damages recoveries in the state and federal courts.
Illinois School Discrimination Cases
Illinois K-12 schools, colleges, and universities broaden their Title IX policies against sex discrimination to include other protections against discrimination based on race, color, national origin, age, and disability. The Illinois State Board of Education provides local school districts and schools with model anti-discrimination policies while also stating procedures for addressing and resolving claims of unlawful discrimination. The Chicago Public Schools, for a prime example, further extend anti-discrimination protections to gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, ethnicity, religion, color, sexual orientation, immigration status, and other status and characteristics.
Let us help if you or your minor student face unlawful discrimination in school admissions, access to school programs and services, or in assessments and advancement through the program. We can also help you or your minor student defend against unlawfully discriminatory disciplinary charges and harassment based on any of the protected categories and characteristics. Not only may we obtain relief through school administrative procedures or the state or federal courts, but we may also be able to recover monetary damages for the loss the discrimination caused or harm the discrimination inflicted.
Illinois Student Rights & Free Speech
You and your minor student also have civil rights while attending Illinois schools at any level, the violation of which may give rise to injunctive relief and money damage claims. The Supreme Court decisions in Tinker v Des Moines, Hazelwood v Kuhlmeier, and Morse v Frederick, for instance, guarantee First Amendment rights to free speech and expression. School officials should not be denying your free speech rights unless they prevent substantial material disruption of school operations. Your free speech rights can extend not only to your written and oral expression but also to your dress and your association with groups and causes.
Even private schools in Illinois, like DePaul University, generally affirm student free speech rights, although they are not strictly required to do so under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, which are applicable only to public school programs. You also have Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure and other due process rights. Let us help if you or your minor student are experiencing violations of constitutional and civil rights and liberties. We can advocate both within the school and outside the school with state and federal agencies and in court litigation.
Retaining Qualified Representation
Beware of unqualified legal representation, which can do more harm than good. The substantive law and procedural rules in academic, and administrative matters all differ from the criminal and civil court rules and procedures that local criminal defense attorneys, personal injury attorneys, and other business and transactional attorneys typically know and follow. The Illinois school officials on whom the proper resolution of your matter may depend also have different customs, norms, and expectations than the court and other officials with whom local criminal defense attorneys are used to dealing. Don't hire a fish out of water. Instead, retain our knowledgeable, skilled, and experienced academic, and administrative attorneys. We have helped hundreds of students across Illinois and nationwide successfully resolve their education law matters. Trust us. We have the qualifications you need for the best possible outcome.
Premier Illinois Education Law Attorneys
If you or your minor student face education law issues at an Illinois K-12 school, college, or university, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team to pursue and enforce all of your rights and claims. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for our highly qualified and effective representation.
