Maryland school programs, whether at the K-12 level or all the way through college to graduate school, necessarily present students with challenges. Maryland school students must meet strict academic requirements while also conforming their conduct to behavioral standards. In fact, Maryland school campuses are very closely regulated environments. Students must meet conduct codes addressing everything from dress and demeanor to what students may carry, say, do, control, or possess. If you or your minor student in a Maryland school program violates a rule or standard, severe consequences, such as school suspension or expulsion, could follow. Maryland schools owe their own obligations to you or your minor student. If you or your minor student needs to either defend school charges or enforce school rights, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team. We are available in the public or private K-12 schools of Baltimore, Columbia, Germantown, Silver Spring, Waldorf, Frederick, Ellicott City, Glen Burnie, Gaithersburg, Rockville, Dundalk, Bethesda, Bowie, Towson, Bel Air South, Severn, Aspen Hill, Wheaton, North Bethesda, and other districts. We are also available at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, Morgan State University, Capitol Technology University, and other Maryland colleges and universities. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for help from our skilled and experienced attorneys.
Common Maryland Education Rights and Claims
While Maryland schools set high expectations for their students, Maryland and federal education laws also provide students with substantial rights, claims, and protections. Common Maryland education law issues, rights, and claims can fall into the following categories. Our Education Law Team attorneys are available throughout Maryland to help you or your minor student with any of these issues and other similar issues.
Maryland School Disability Accommodations
Maryland schools should be open to students with disabilities. Don't let physical, mental, or educational disabilities discourage you or your minor student from enjoying full access to Maryland's fine educational programs. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the first federal law guaranteeing that access. The ADA requires your Maryland school to reasonably accommodate qualifying disabilities, whether at a Maryland public school under ADA Title II, 42 USC §12131, or at a Maryland private school under ADA Title III, 42 USC §12182. The ADA doesn't just ensure handicapped ramp access. The ADA doesn't just guarantee wheelchair-accessible bathrooms. The ADA can also require a school to provide an optical character reader for the visually impaired, a sign-language interpreter for the hearing impaired, a lift to a stage or down into a pool, and other accommodations and services.
We can help you or your minor student with disability access issues at your Maryland campus. We regularly work with ADA officials and offices like the one at the University of Maryland on equity and inclusion issues disabled students face. Our attorneys can also advocate disability rights and issues to defend academic progress and disciplinary charges in appropriate cases. If we are unable to negotiate appropriate relief with ADA officials, we can seek school administrative review and relief, agency review and relief, or court remedy in appropriate cases. Don't ignore your disability rights, and don't let school officials blame you or your minor student for issues that the school's own failure to accommodate creates. Get our help.
Maryland Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) & 504 Plans
Your minor student may also have the right to special education services in your student's Maryland K-12 program. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) offers substantial federal funding for special education services to states and school districts that meet the IDEA law's requirements. The IDEA law works together with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to ensure that disabled students in qualifying states receive the benefit of special education. The Maryland State Department of Education maintains an Early Intervention and Special Education Services Office to qualify Maryland schools for that federal funding. The Special Education Services Office should be helping your minor student's Maryland school implement a child find program to qualify disabled students for special education services.
We can ensure that your minor student's Maryland K-12 school officials fulfill their IDEA law and Section 504 duties. Those duties include having your student with a qualifying disability have an individualized education program (IEP) or similar Section 504 plan, in which you play a role in its development, review, and adjustment. You have the IDEA law right to attend IEP team meetings to advocate for a better plan. We can help you do so. We can also appeal adverse decisions to the school board or its designated district official. Our attorneys are available in the Howard County Public Schools, Montgomery County Public Schools, Worcester County Public Schools, Calvert County Public Schools, Federick County Public Schools, Carroll County Public Schools, or any other Maryland school district.
Maryland School Discipline & Expulsions
You or your minor K-12 student may alternatively face Maryland school suspension or expulsion. Maryland K-12 schools, colleges, and universities don't just require specific academic progress, including minimum GPAs and continuous progress, and compliance with honor codes and academic integrity policies. They also impose student codes of conduct regulating everything from alcohol, tobacco, vaping, drugs, computer use, dress codes, and demeanor toward staff members and other students to more serious issues like fighting and other violence, theft, and vandalism. For example, the Student Conduct Code at Johns Hopkins University sets forth a long list of prohibited acts for which the school's disciplinary officials may impose suspension or expulsion. See also the Student Code of Conduct for the Baltimore City Public Schools, stating similar prohibited acts.
Don't let Maryland school disciplinary officials impose an unnecessary, unwarranted, or unfair school suspension or expulsion. School disciplinary charges don't mean that you or your minor student committed a serious wrong. School officials may be on a fishing expedition or relying on a false or exaggerated report, rumor, or speculation. Even if you or your minor student committed something wrong, remedial measures may be the preferred outcome in both your interest and the school's educational interest over punitive sanctions. Let our attorneys make the best defense case for disciplinary charges. And don't let Maryland K-12 officials send your minor student to an alternative disciplinary school or boot camp. Let us help preserve your minor student's traditional school placement.
Maryland School Bullying & Harassment
Bullying, hazing, and other similar forms of intimidation and harassment have caused such serious student harm, including serious or fatal injury, depression, and suicide, that states nationwide, Maryland included, have taken appropriate regulatory action. Maryland's anti-bullying law, Maryland Code Education Article Section 7-424.1, requires school districts across the state to adopt anti-bullying policies and programs. Maryland's State Department of Education has accordingly adopted a Model Policy Against Bullying, Harassment, or Intimidation for schools to implement. Maryland has also adopted an anti-hazing law, codified in Maryland Criminal Code Section 3-607, prohibiting dangerous or reckless initiation rites into student organizations.
We can help you or your minor student enforce these Maryland anti-bullying and anti-harassment laws through your school's administrative procedures and into the state agencies and courts as necessary. The Johns Hopkins University Student Conduct Code, which has already been cited, includes anti-hazing, anti-bullying, and anti-harassment provisions. We can invoke your school's procedures to gain you or your minor student-appropriate relief. If you or your minor student have suffered harm, loss, or injury, we can also pursue a money damages remedy through administrative and civil court procedures.
Maryland School Discrimination Cases
You and your minor student also have non-discrimination rights when attending Maryland schools. Maryland Code Education Article Section 26-704 prohibits schools in the state from discriminating based on “race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.” The federal Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 expressly prohibits sex discrimination in education, not just in admissions and program participation, but also requiring schools to protect against sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, and dating violence. Maryland schools at all levels recognize and adopt these same protections. See, for example, the Morgan State University Code of Student Conduct, referring to and incorporating Title IX protections.
Let us help if you or your minor student face Maryland school discrimination in admissions, advancement, discipline, or school-related housing, transportation, facility use, or services. We can invoke the appropriate school administrative procedures to challenge the discriminatory action. If discrimination has caused you or your minor student harm, loss, or injury, we can also seek monetary damages in administrative or civil court proceedings.
Maryland Student Free Speech Rights
The Maryland school that you or your minor student attends has the responsibility to maintain reasonable school order so as not to disrupt school instruction or operations. Maryland schools typically do so through their student codes of conduct prohibiting trespassing, noise-making, blocking sidewalks and streets, vandalism, and other protest activities interfering with school functions. They may also adopt a student dress code, like the one the Baltimore City Public Schools deploy and enforce. However, under Supreme Court authority, like the cases of Tinker v Des Moines and Hazelwood v Kuhlmeier, Maryland public schools must not interfere unduly with student rights of free speech, association, and expression. Maryland schools may thus follow student free speech and protest guidelines like the one in place at the University of Maryland.
Let us help you enforce your free speech rights if your Maryland school has threatened your suspension or expulsion for taking an unpopular stance in a lawful, non-disruptive manner. You and your minor student also have the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments against unreasonable search and seizure. Let us help defend disciplinary charges based on evidence recovered in an unlawful search of a locker, backpack, purse, dormitory room, vehicle, or other private place. We may also be able to pursue a money damages recovery under 42 USC Section 1983 for violation of constitutional rights.
Maryland School Protective Procedures
To enforce your rights and claims, or the rights and claims of your minor K-12 student, our attorneys have the skill and experience to invoke constitutional due process rights. Maryland public schools from the K-12 level through college to graduate or professional school must generally afford a student fair notice and a fair hearing before an impartial decision-maker before imposing a long-term suspension or school expulsion. Maryland law, codified in Maryland Code of Regulations Section 13a.05.01.15, recognizes public school due process guarantees. Maryland schools at all levels generally promise due process in their conduct codes and procedures. The Morgan State University Code of Student Conduct, which is already cited above, is an example of expressly providing for due process.
Our Role Enforcing Your Education Law Rights
Our Education Law Team attorneys know how to turn the promise of due process into actual results in your best possible Maryland school outcome. No matter what charges or issues you or your minor student face, our attorneys know how to invoke the appropriate procedures to present the best case to the right officials. We are often able to resolve matters informally with an early conciliation conference. If, instead, your matter proceeds on formal charges, we can invoke the school's hearing procedures to ensure that we can present the testimony of your exonerating and mitigating witnesses and challenge adverse testimony by cross-examination. If you have already lost your hearing, we can take available appeals. If you have already lost your appeal, we may be able to negotiate alternative special relief with your school's general counsel or obtain review and relief from a civil court. Don't give up. Let us exhaust all avenues until we have obtained your best possible outcome.
Premier Maryland Education Law Attorneys
If you or your minor student face Maryland K-12 school, college, or university academic progress issues, disciplinary charges, or issues with disability accommodations, special education services, discrimination, bullying, harassment, hazing, or other education law issues, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team for best results. We help hundreds of students across Maryland and nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for our skilled and experienced representation.
