Minnesota has a great educational system, from the K-12 level to the state's fine colleges and universities. However, Minnesota schools maintain the same educational rigor as schools in other states, requiring students to meet state benchmarks at the K-12 level and federal satisfactory academic progress (SAP) requirements at the higher education level. You or your minor student could suffer school suspension or expulsion for failure to progress academically. Minnesota schools at all levels also impose academic integrity and behavioral conduct requirements, the violation of which could result in disciplinary suspension or expulsion. Minnesota schools simultaneously owe their students state and federal education law rights.
Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team if you or your minor student face school suspension or expulsion or other educational law issues requiring enforcement of legal rights. Our attorneys are available in the public or private K-12 schools of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester, Bloomington, Duluth, Brooklyn Park, Plymouth, Woodbury, Lakeville, Blaine, Maple Grove, St. Cloud, and other districts across the state. We are also available at the University of Minnesota, University of St. Thomas, St. Catherine University, Bethel University, College of St. Scholastica, Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, Carleton College, and other Minnesota colleges and universities. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for highly qualified representation by our skilled and experienced Education Law Team attorneys. Get the help you or your minor student need for the best possible outcome.
Common Minnesota Education Rights and Claims
When you or your minor student face Minnesota school issues, chances are good that state or federal education laws offer you or your minor student certain enforceable rights. Those rights may include access to school programs and services, academic advancement, protection from wrongs others commit, reinstatement after suspension or expulsion, other negotiated or injunctive relief, and even money damages in appropriate cases. Let our Education Law Team attorneys help you or your minor student pursue deserved relief on any of the following common school issues and other similar issues, no matter your location across Minnesota.
Minnesota School Disability Accommodations
The first major issue that Minnesota students can face involves gaining access to educational facilities, programs, and services when mental, physical, or educational disabilities are present. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies not just to employment and places of public accommodation but also to schools. Under the ADA's Title II, 42 USC §12131, Minnesota's public schools at all levels must reasonably accommodate students with qualifying disabilities. The ADA's Title III, 42 USC §12182, extends the same protections to students attending Minnesota's private schools. Importantly, the ADA applies not just to physical access to facilities, with wheelchair ramps, lifts, elevators, and the like, but also to access to programs, technology, and services. The ADA may, for instance, require a Minnesota school to modify its websites for the visually impaired or provide a sign language interpreter for the hearing impaired.
Our attorneys know how to invoke Minnesota school administrative procedures to reach, negotiate, and advocate with school officials for appropriate ADA compliance through accommodations. See, for example, the ADA commitment to accessibility that the University of Minnesota professes. We can also take district and state agency appeals, seek special relief through oversight channels, and pursue civil court relief as appropriate. Don't let disability issues detract from your education or the education of your minor student. Get our skilled and experienced help.
Minnesota Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) & 504 Plans
Facility and program ADA accommodations are not the only relief available for your minor student with a qualifying disability. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 together require Minnesota K-12 public schools to provide special education services to students with qualifying disabilities for those schools to qualify for substantial federal special education funding. Minnesota's Department of Education maintains a Special Education Division to help local schools and districts meet those federal special education requirements. The primary requirement is that your minor student's Minnesota K-12 school offer an individualized education program (IEP) or similar Section 504 plan to any student diagnosed as having a qualifying impairment. The school has the burden of identifying and referring the student for diagnosis and involving the student and parent in the development, review, and adjustment of the IEP.
We can help if your student's Minnesota K-12 school officials refuse to send your student for diagnosis, refuse to adopt the diagnostician's recommended special education services, or fail to include you in IEP team meetings to assess and adjust the plan. Our attorneys can advocate on your student's behalf with school officials, appeal adverse IEP team decisions to district officials, and seek further state agency or civil court review if necessary. We can help in the Saint Paul Public School District, Minneapolis Public School District, Anoka-Hennepin Schools, Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan Independent School District, Osseo Area Schools, South Washington County School District, Rochester Public School District, Independent School District No. 728, Wayzata Public Schools, Mounds View Public School District, Lakeville Public School District, Robbinsdale Area Schools, or any other Minnesota school district.
Minnesota School Discipline & Expulsions
You or your minor student may alternatively face Minnesota school suspension or expulsion. Minnesota schools at all levels, from K-12 to higher education, adopt student codes of conduct, the violation of which may lead to school discipline. The University of Minnesota Board of Regents, for instance, has adopted a Student Conduct Code prohibiting all kinds of harmful, endangering, or disruptive behavior. The Saint Paul Public Schools likewise adopt a Student Rights & Responsibilities Handbook listing several levels of punishable misbehaviors. While discipline at the higher education level typically involves school suspension or dismissal, Minnesota schools at the K-12 level also have the option of imposing what the Minnesota Department of Education calls unique placement, known elsewhere as alternative disciplinary placement, boot camp, or reform school.
Under a Minnesota school code of conduct, you or your minor student could face suspension or expulsion for failure to progress academically, academic misconduct like cheating or plagiarism, or behavioral misconduct such as theft, vandalism, drug or alcohol possession, or violence. If you or your minor student face disciplinary charges, don't assume that the charges warrant a severe penalty. Don't give up. Instead, retain our attorneys to navigate the school procedures toward an early voluntary dismissal or, if necessary, through hearing and appeal procedures for the best possible result. We know how to present the best case for exoneration from the charges or mitigation of any sanction.
Minnesota School Bullying & Harassment
States nationwide have taken notice of severe injuries or even deaths related to school hazing, bullying, and harassment. Minnesota is among those states. Minnesota Statutes Section 121A.031 requires the state's local school districts to adopt and implement anti-bullying policies and programs. School districts statewide have accordingly adopted those anti-bullying programs in their student conduct codes, as in the case of the Saint Paul Public Schools' Student Rights & Responsibilities Handbook. Minnesota Statutes Section 121A.69 similarly requires the state's local school districts to adopt anti-hazing policies based on a state model policy to prohibit student organizations from following endangering or reckless initiation rites. The University of Minnesota and other Minnesota colleges and universities also adopt anti-hazing policies in their student conduct codes.
We are available across Minnesota to help ensure that Minnesota school officials live up to their obligations to prevent bullying, hazing, and similar forms of student harassment. Our attorneys can also defend you or your minor student against bullying, hazing, or other harassment charges. Schools can take these allegations very seriously because of the notorious cases that led to the widespread state legislation. Get our highly qualified representation to ensure your best results.
Minnesota School Discrimination Cases
You and your minor student also have protection against unlawful discrimination when attending a Minnesota school at any level. The Minnesota Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, sexual orientation, or disability. Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, and national origin, while Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in schools receiving federal funding. Title IX's prohibition on sex discrimination extends to requiring schools to protect students against sexual assault or harassment, dating violence, and stalking. Minnesota schools at all levels generally adopt anti-discrimination policies in their student conduct codes or other student policies, like the anti-discrimination provision in the Saint Paul Public Schools Student Rights & Responsibilities Handbook and the anti-discrimination provision in the University of Minnesota Student Conduct Code.
Let us help you and your minor student enforce these anti-discrimination rights. The issue may involve school admission, school program participation, or unlawfully discriminatory treatment in school discipline, advancement, or graduation. The issue may alternatively involve access to school housing, transportation, medical care, recreational facilities, or other facilities, programs, or benefits. Let our attorneys invoke the appropriate administrative procedures to gain the deserved relief. We can also pursue state or federal agency and civil court enforcement, including monetary damages in appropriate cases.
Minnesota Student Free Speech Rights
Don't let a Minnesota school interfere with your important free speech rights or the free speech rights of your minor student. You and your minor student do not lose your First Amendment right to free expression at the schoolhouse door. The Supreme Court in Tinker v Des Moines and other cases has held that students retain free speech, association, and expression rights on school campuses and in school programs. Minnesota schools may regulate student conduct, including student speech, to maintain instruction but must not restrict non-disruptive free speech and expression. For instance, the University of Minnesota's guidelines for student demonstrations and protests. See also the assurance of free speech rights the Saint Paul Public Schools make in their Student Rights & Responsibilities Handbook.
Our attorneys can help you and your minor student enforce free speech rights. That enforcement may come in our defense of disciplinary charges involving allegations that you or your minor student disrupted school operations or otherwise violated school rules with expressive conduct. We may alternatively be able to make a money damages recovery under 42 USC Section 1983 for a substantial violation of constitutional rights. You and your minor student may also have rights, claims, and defenses based on rights against unreasonable search and seizure and privacy or other rights. Let us help you preserve, exercise, and enforce those rights.
Minnesota School Protective Procedures
You and your minor student also have a constitutional right to due process whenever a Minnesota public school threatens long-term suspension or school expulsion. Minnesota Statutes Section 121A.42 accordingly guarantees due process to the state's K-12 public school students under those circumstances. Minnesota's public colleges and universities will also offer due process protections to students facing suspension or dismissal, as the University of Minnesota's Student Conduct Code expressly assures.
Our Role Enforcing Your Education Law Rights
Our attorneys know how to turn due process rights into practical results. Due process rights are not generally self-executing. You or your minor student will need our help turning those rights into strategic and effective action. We can, for instance, often arrange an early conciliation conference at which to negotiate the school's voluntary relief. Otherwise, we can invoke formal hearing rights to present the best case for relief. If you have already lost the hearing, we can take available appeals and seek court review if you've also lost your appeals. Alternative special relief may also be available through our contact with the school's general counsel office.
Premier Minnesota Education Law Attorneys
Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team if you or your minor student face Minnesota school issues threatening suspension, expulsion, or other loss or discipline. Our attorneys help with academic progress issues, disciplinary charges, disability accommodations, special education services, discrimination, bullying, harassment, hazing, and other education law issues. We represent hundreds of students across Minnesota and nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now for our premier attorney representation.
