You have good reasons to value the Louisiana college or university education you are pursuing or the Louisiana K-12 program in which you have your minor student enrolled. Louisiana has fine public and private schools from the primary and secondary school level all the way through higher education. However, the education law issues that you or your minor student now face also show that Louisiana schools can be far from perfect. Louisiana school officials can misapply and unfairly construe academic progress requirements and pursue false or exaggerated disciplinary charges for allegations involving academic or behavioral wrongs. They can also deny important civil rights involving free speech, disability accommodations, special education services, and bullying, hazing, and harassment.
Beware of Louisiana school suspension, expulsion, or other harms and discipline that have long-term or permanent effects. Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team to enforce your education law rights or the rights of your minor student. We are available in the public and private K-12 schools of New Orleans, Lafayette, Metairie, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Lake Charles, Kenner, Bossier City, Monroe, Alexandria, Prairieville, Houma, Marrero, Central, and other local school districts across the state. Our highly qualified attorneys are also available to represent students at the University of Louisiana, Louisiana State University, Tulane University, Loyola University New Orleans, Louisiana Tech University, and other Louisiana colleges and universities. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for the skilled and experienced attorney representation you or your minor student need to enforce fundamental education law rights.
Common Louisiana Education Rights and Claims
Our Education Law Team attorneys have many federal and Louisiana state education laws, rules, and regulations that we can enforce to help you or your minor student gain full access to your Louisiana educational program and retain or restore your program rights, privileges, and interests. We can strategically and effectively address the following academic progress issues: academic misconduct charges, behavioral misconduct charges, disability and special education rights, and other civil rights addressed below, along with related issues.
Louisiana School Disability Accommodations
You and your minor student have substantial school disability accommodation rights to help you overcome physical, mental, or other educational impairments limiting your access to Louisiana school facilities and programs. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II, found at 42 USC §12131, requires Louisiana public schools at all levels to provide reasonable accommodations for students with qualifying disabilities. The ADA's Title III, 42 USC §12182, grants the same reasonable accommodations to disabled students at Louisiana's private schools. The ADA applies not only to wheelchair access with lifts, elevators, and ramps but also to equipment and services for the visually impaired and hearing impaired. Your Louisiana school may have to modify facilities, equipment, and technology, including websites, to ensure your equal access.
Our attorneys can invoke your school's ADA compliance procedures to help you or your minor student gain full ADA accommodations and services. The University of Louisiana Lafayette, for instance, maintains an Office of Disability Services, the procedures of which our attorneys can invoke for your reasonable accommodation. The New Orleans Public Schools likewise maintains an office for Exceptional Children's Services to ensure disabled students access not only to facilities but also to digital services. Our attorneys can invoke similar procedures in your school to engage school officials in the interactive process necessary to enforce ADA rights.
Louisiana Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) & 504 Plans
Louisiana public K-12 schools receiving federal funding also have the responsibility to provide your minor student with special education services for qualifying disabilities. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires Louisiana's K-12 public schools to provide (FAPE) to disabled students with qualifying disabilities while providing substantial federal special education funding to carry out that obligation. The Louisiana Department of Education accordingly offers its local public schools technical resources for diverse learners to qualify for federal special education funding. Your minor student's Louisiana public school must provide an individualized education program (IEP) for each student with a qualifying impairment. Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires a similar plan. These laws also assure your participation in IEP team meetings and decisions on the appropriate special education services for your disabled student.
Your minor student's Louisiana school officials have an obligation to refer your student for professional diagnosis and special education recommendations when suspecting an impairment is interfering with education. Our attorneys can help you ensure that school officials fulfill that duty at school cost, adopt an appropriate IEP, and implement, review, and adjust the IEP as necessary for your disabled student's full benefit. We can also appeal adverse special education decisions to district and state officials and take other civil enforcement action. Our attorneys can advocate for your disabled student's special education services in the Jefferson Parish Schools, East Baton Rouge Parish Public Schools, St. Tammany Parish Public Schools, Caddo Parish Public Schools, Lafayette Parish Public Schools, Calcasieu Parish Public Schools, Livingston Parish Public Schools, Ascension Parish Public Schools, Bossier Parish Public Schools, Rapides Parish Public Schools, Tangipahoa Parish Public Schools, Ouachita Parish Public Schools, or any other Louisiana school district.
Louisiana School Discipline & Expulsions
Misconduct allegations at your Louisiana college or university, or your minor student's Louisiana primary or secondary school program, could lead to school suspension or expulsion. In your minor student's case, transfer to a Louisiana alternative disciplinary school or boot camp under Louisiana Administrative Code Section 28:XI.3501 may follow school expulsion. Louisiana schools at all levels maintain student codes of conduct under which disciplinary officials issue misconduct charges. Louisiana Statutes Section 17.17.416.13 requires local school districts to adopt those student conduct codes. The University of Louisiana's Code of Student Conduct is an example of prohibiting a very long list of student misbehaviors. The Orleans Parish School Board, for a K-12 school example, likewise maintains a Discipline Policy under which school officials may suspend and expel disruptive students.
Take any such misconduct charges seriously. Charges are not findings. Charges are instead allegations. Your Louisiana school disciplinary officials may have based those allegations on guess, conjecture, rumor, or speculation. Our attorneys can invoke your school's administrative procedures to challenge misconduct allegations with your exonerating and mitigating evidence. We can also take appeals from adverse decisions you or your minor student have already suffered, seeking reinstatement and restoration of the good academic record. Even if you or your minor student are responsible for all or some of what school officials allege, we can often negotiate alternative remedial relief that keeps the school record clear of any discipline.
Louisiana School Bullying & Harassment
Louisiana's legislature has enacted specific protections against school bullying, hazing, and other forms of harassment. Louisiana Statutes Section 17.17.416.14 expressly prohibits bullying while requiring local K-12 schools to adopt and implement anti-bullying programs meeting state requirements. Louisiana Statutes Section 17.1801 likewise prohibits hazing in the state's schools receiving public funds, defining hazing to include any act “likely to cause bodily danger or physical punishment” related to initiation into a student organization. The University of Louisiana Lafayette Code of Student Conduct accordingly adopts a hazing prohibition, while the Orleans Parish School Board's Discipline Policy adopts its own anti-bullying measure.
Our attorneys can help you or your minor student enforce these anti-bullying, hazing, and harassment rights at your Louisiana school. We can also pursue a money damages recovery on your behalf or your minor student's behalf for any harm or injury from the school's failure to live up to its obligations. Our attorneys also defend students facing bullying, hazing, or harassment disciplinary charges. Get our highly qualified attorney representation to address these important issues.
Louisiana School Discrimination Cases
Your Louisiana college or university, or your minor student's Louisiana primary or secondary school, must also avoid unlawful discrimination affecting educational rights and access. Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits sex discrimination, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, and dating violence. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 adds protection against school discrimination based on race, color, and national origin. These measures apply to all Louisiana schools receiving federal funds. Louisiana Statutes Section 17.17.111 likewise prohibits discrimination based on “race, creed, color, disability..., national origin, or natural, protective, or cultural hairstyle.” Louisiana schools at all levels routinely adopt these protections in their student codes and policies. See, for example, the Title IX policy and procedures of the University of Louisiana Lafayette.
Our attorneys can help you or your minor student enforce non-discrimination rights at any Louisiana school. Your rights go well beyond equal opportunity for school admission and program participation to include equal, non-discriminatory treatment in retention, advancement, graduation, discipline, and school services and privileges. Money damages recoveries may be available for substantial violations of these anti-discrimination rights. We can also help you or your minor student defend Title IX or other discrimination or harassment charges.
Louisiana Student Free Speech Rights
You and your minor student also have free speech rights while attending Louisiana public school programs. The Supreme Court in Tinker v Des Moines, Morse v Frederick, and several other significant cases has held that First Amendment rights of free speech and expression extend to public schools. Louisiana public schools must respect First Amendment rights and often maintain express policies recognizing them. The University of Louisiana Lafayette, for example, publishes an elaborate Policy on Campus Free Speech. Schools may nonetheless maintain student protest policies and grooming and dress codes that infringe on these rights. See, for example, the Orleans Parish School Board Student Dress Code requiring school uniforms and sharply limiting student expression of affiliation, emblems, and symbols in that respect.
Don't let your Louisiana college or university or your minor student's Louisiana K-12 school deny these important First Amendment rights. Free speech and expression can be a fundamental aspect of identity, engagement, and learning in a healthy academic environment. We can help you enforce free speech, freedom of association, and related rights. We can also help enforce rights against unreasonable search and seizure, including as a defense to disciplinary charges over contraband gained from an illegal search of a dormitory room, car, locker, purse, backpack, or other personal item or private space. Money damages remedies may also be available under 42 USC Section 1983 for constitutional violations. Let us help you and your minor student preserve and enforce these important rights.
Louisiana School Protective Procedures
You and your minor student may also have constitutional rights to due process that our attorneys can invoke on your behalf to ensure enforcement of the above rights and interests. Louisiana public school officials, in particular, must not deprive you or your minor student of liberty and property interests in public education without fair notice of the grounds and a fair hearing of your defense to the allegations. Louisiana Administrative Code Section 28:CXV.1306 accordingly guarantees your minor student due process when facing long-term suspension or expulsion from a Louisiana grade school. The University of Louisiana Lafayette Code of Student Conduct, for another example, similarly guarantees students due process, including fair notice and hearing in cases involving potential school suspension or expulsion.
Our Role Enforcing Your Education Law Rights
Our attorneys play critical roles in the effective enforcement of your procedural and substantive education law rights. Our attorneys have the substantial skill and experience to communicate, advocate, and negotiate effectively with your Louisiana school officials. We are often able to gain voluntary dismissal of disciplinary charges at an early conciliation conference. We also appear at formal hearings to present defense evidence and challenge school charges. We can also take appeals of adverse hearing results and seek alternative special relief if you have already lost all hearings and appeals.
Premier Louisiana Education Law Attorneys
You can do no better than to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team for help with academic progress issues, disciplinary charges, bullying, harassment, and other education law issues. We represent hundreds of students across Louisiana and nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for our skilled and experienced representation.
