Your Massachusetts K-12 student, or you, while enrolled at a Massachusetts college or university, are in one of the most highly regulated environments. A web of laws, rules, regulations, conduct codes, and policies governs Massachusetts students at all levels. Violating those provisions can lead to serious disciplinary charges, resulting in-school suspension, dismissal, or other crippling sanctions. If you or your minor student face Massachusetts school discipline, whether at Harvard University, MIT, Boston College, Tufts University, Boston University, Northeastern University, the University of Massachusetts, Brandeis University, or in a Massachusetts K-12 program in the Boston Public Schools, Worcester Public Schools, Springfield Public Schools, Lynn Public Schools, Brockton Public Schools, Lowell Public Schools, Lawrence Public Schools, New Bedford Public Schools, Newton Public Schools, or other school district, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team for the best possible disciplinary outcome. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for skilled and experienced defense from our highly qualified attorneys.
Common Massachusetts Education Rights and Claims
You and your minor student have substantial rights and claims under both Massachusetts state law and federal law applying in Massachusetts, protecting against unfair, unnecessary, and unwarranted school discipline. Our Education Law Team stands ready to defend you or your minor student, asserting any of the following rights and other protective rights and procedures.
Massachusetts Disability Accommodations
You or your minor student may have substantial disability rights protecting against unfair discipline. Massachusetts schools, like schools in other states, must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA applies to schools from kindergarten all the way through primary and secondary schools and into college and university programs. Under the ADA, your school, whether public or private, must reasonably accommodate students with qualifying disabilities. Title II of the ADA, 42 USC §12131, covers public school districts, while Title III of the ADA, 42 USC §12182, covers private school districts. We tend to think of the ADA as applying to handicap ramps, lifts, and wheelchair-accessible bathrooms. However, ADA accommodations can also include providing equipment like digital readers and offering services like sign language interpreters. When Massachusetts schools fail to meet their ADA requirements, students can suffer in their academic performance, teacher and peer relationships, and social and behavioral integration into the school, leading to other issues.
Contact our attorneys if you or your minor student have a disability qualifying for reasonable accommodations that the school has refused. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) offers a Bureau of Special Education Appeals to which we can appeal to advocate and negotiate for appropriate accommodation relief. Your Massachusetts public or private college or university will likewise have an ADA coordinator whose procedures we can invoke in the interactive process that the ADA requires. Let us also help you defend unsatisfactory academic progress charges and address disciplinary issues related to the school's failure to provide appropriate disability accommodations.
Massachusetts Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) & 504 Plans
Your minor student with a qualifying disability also has rights under state and federal law to special education services. Massachusetts Public Education Law Chapter 766, the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 together promise, fund, and assure special education services in Massachusetts K-12 programs. Your minor student's school officials have the obligation under those laws to identify your student's educational impairment through a child find program. The burden is on the school, not on you, to refer your student for appropriate evaluation and diagnosis and then to provide the recommended special education services that federal funding supplies.
We can help if your minor student's Massachusetts school officials are resisting their obligation to refer your student for evaluation and provide the recommended special education services. Your student may be entitled to an individualized education program (IEP) or may already have an IEP that the school is refusing to follow. Your student may alternatively have or deserve a Section 504 plan, ensuring that your student does not suffer disability discrimination. We are available to assist you and your minor student whether in the Boston public or private schools, suburban schools in the MetroWest area including Ashland, Framingham, and Wayland, or other areas around Boston or in Western Massachusetts including Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline. We can attend IEP meetings, invoke IEP district appeals, and pursue other enforcement actions.
Massachusetts School Discipline & Expulsions
You and your student also have substantial protective rights when facing disciplinary charges. Our attorneys have helped hundreds of students in Massachusetts and across the country avoid suspension or expulsion on academic progress charges for failed courses or below minimum GPAs, academic misconduct charges for dishonesty or cheating, and behavioral misconduct charges for things like possession of drugs or alcohol, or for fighting, insubordination, trespass, computer misuse, and similar allegations. Massachusetts colleges and universities routinely maintain student codes of conduct, like the one in place at Northeastern University, that both define many punishable wrongs while also promising protective procedures against false accusations and unnecessary sanctions. Massachusetts K-12 programs have similar codes and procedures, like the Boston Public Schools Code of Conduct.
When our attorneys appear on your behalf, they can present your exonerating evidence and mitigating information to disciplinary officials to advocate and negotiate for early voluntary dismissal of the charges. If officials do not voluntarily resolve the matter in your favor, we can invoke the formal hearing procedures to present your best defense case to the impartial hearing officer. If you have already lost your hearing, we can invoke your appeal rights to higher authorities and even seek court review as necessary. If you have exhausted all formal avenues for relief, we may be able to obtain alternative special relief through a general counsel office or other oversight channel.
Massachusetts School Bullying & Harassment
We can also help you and your minor student address bullying, hazing, intimidation, and harassment issues. Massachusetts schools at all levels, from K-12 programs through higher education and into graduate programs, have the statutory and regulatory obligation to prevent student bullying and harassment. Massachusetts General Law Part I, Title XII, Chapter 71, Section 370 is the state statute requiring K-12 schools to adopt anti-bullying programs and measures and to protect students against bullying and retaliation for reporting bullying. See, for example, the Bullying Prevention & Intervention Program of the Newton Public Schools. Massachusetts General Law Part IV, Title I, Chapter 269, Section 17 likewise makes it a criminal offense to engage in hazing as an initiation rite into a student organization. Federal Title IX laws, rules, and regulations likewise prohibit sexual assault, dating violence, stalking, and other forms of sexual harassment in Massachusetts schools at all levels.
If Massachusetts school officials are ignoring their obligations to protect you or your minor student from any of these forms of harassment, our attorneys know how to help. We can not only help you obtain appropriate relief but may also be able to pursue a substantial monetary damages recovery. We can also help address academic progress, absences, or even truancy issues related to school bullying, which can be the cause of those issues. Our attorneys also defend students accused of bullying, hazing, or harassment. These are serious matters and charges. Get our highly qualified help.
Massachusetts School Discrimination Cases
Discrimination in Massachusetts school programs can also be a significant issue at any level, from K-12 programs to higher education. Together, the federal Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Massachusetts General Law Part I, Title XII, Chapter 76, Section 5 prohibit school discrimination based on sex, race, religion, disability, and other characteristics and attributes. Those laws do more than ensure your access or your student's access to school programs and services. They also prohibit discriminatory treatment in grading, advancement, graduation, and discipline, as well as in school-related services like housing, transportation, and use of recreational facilities and medical services.
We can help you or your minor student secure these anti-discrimination rights. Your school will provide some office, personnel, and procedures that we can invoke to advocate and negotiate for your prompt and full relief. The University of Massachusetts Boston is an example, maintaining an Office of Civil Rights & Title IX to respond to our complaint and advocate on your behalf, enforcing your non-discrimination rights. The same office also maintains a Title IX coordinator whose procedures we can invoke on your behalf, whether needing protection from sex discrimination and harassment or seeking to defend against discrimination and harassment charges.
Massachusetts Student Free Speech Rights
You or your minor student have other substantial civil rights that we can help you enforce. The Supreme Court in Tinker v Des Moines, Hazelwood v Kuhlmeier, Morse v Frederick, and other cases have held that you retain your free speech, freedom of association, and free expression rights in public school programs. Massachusetts schools at all levels adopt student conduct codes, regulating student dress, demeanor, and behavior. The Boston Public Schools Code of Conduct is an example, authorizing building principals to publish dress codes at the beginning of each school year. Strict or unfair application of dress codes, conduct codes, club participation, and other expressive conduct can violate students' First Amendment rights.
You and your minor student also have Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. Students maintain a degree of privacy, even when on school grounds and involved in school programs. Searches of a student's person, personal effects, locker, dormitory, or motor vehicle, or secret observation or surveillance in private spaces may violate those rights. We can help you enforce these rights, whether affirmatively to be able to exercise them freely or in defense of disciplinary charges. We may even be able to obtain a money damages recovery under 42 USC Section 1983 for substantial violations of your constitutional rights.
Massachusetts School Protective Procedures
You and your minor student have constitutional rights to due process, particularly in public school settings, that ensure our attorneys' ability to enforce claims and rights. Your Massachusetts school's due process guarantees can ensure that school officials hear your matter while also providing you with even greater protection against arbitrary and capricious actions of Massachusetts school officials. See, for example, the Student Code of Conduct at Boston College, providing for elaborate notice, hearing, appeal, and other procedures. Our attorneys know how to invoke those procedures to their best strategic effect. We can get you appropriate response and action through administrative procedures when school officials won't listen to you.
Our Role Enforcing Your Education Law Rights
While every matter is different, our attorneys know the strategic steps to take that generally work best in these academic administrative proceedings. Do not retain unqualified local criminal defense counsel or civil litigators who are unfamiliar with school laws, rules, regulations, and procedures. Those laws, rules, and procedures differ from court rules and procedures, just as the customs, norms, and expectations among academic officials differ from court norms. Don't let an unqualified attorney make your school matter worse. Our attorneys have the national reputation and local relationships to gain the trust, confidence, and respect of Massachusetts school officials. We will promptly appear on your behalf so that school officials can communicate with us. We can often negotiate prompt voluntary relief. However, we also invoke formal hearing procedures to present evidence and cross-examine adverse witnesses. If you have already lost your hearing, we can take available appeals, seek court relief, and seek alternative special relief.
Premier Massachusetts Education Law Attorneys
If you or your student face Massachusetts school, college, or university issues including problems with disability rights, discrimination, bullying, harassment, hazing, or other education law issues, then retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team for your best result. We have helped hundreds of students in Massachusetts and nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for our highly qualified representation.
