The LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team works to protect the rights of students at all levels in schools all across the state of Missouri. We know how important your child’s education is to you and to them, and what a significant part of their life school is. We also understand how stressful and difficult it can be if a student encounters problems at school. Students who used to excel in the classroom can find themselves failing; those who looked forward to every day at school may dread leaving their house in the morning.
Our goal as attorneys for students in Missouri is to fight for their rights and to safeguard their futures. The LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team understands what your students’ rights are, and we know how to protect those rights and ensure that their school respects them so that your student has the best chance possible of receiving the education they deserve. No matter what level your student is at – from kindergarten through college – we are here to help. Call us today at 888.535.3686 or fill out our contact form, and we will get back to you to learn more about your student’s situation and to tell you how we can help.
Student Issues in Missouri Schools
Missouri schools, like schools all across the country, have a complicated web of federal, state, and often local laws, regulations, and rules that they must navigate in the course of educating their students. While most educators and administrators try very hard to follow the law when it comes to their responsibilities towards their students, they don’t always get things right. When that happens, students can be harmed. At the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team, our goal is to fix those kinds of situations and fight for our student clients’ rights so that they can have the kind of educational experience that they are entitled to by law. Here are some of the issues our Student Defense Team can help you and your student with.
Special Education and Disability Rights
Both Missouri and the federal government have requirements in place that apply to the way schools educate students with disabilities. These include having to comply with the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If you are the parent of a student who has been evaluated as having a disability, you are probably aware of many of the obligations that your child’s school has to make reasonable accommodations for your child’s disability and to provide your child with a free and appropriate public education.
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DOE) understands the obligations its schools have towards students with disabilities as well. Its website includes a comprehensive set of links to documents, advice, and explanations for the various aspects of special education. The amount of information available, while useful, may also seem overwhelming, especially if you have a particular concern, question, or issue you need help with.
The LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can often provide you with the answer you’re looking for quickly. Our education attorneys work in this field on a day-to-day basis, and we understand the various laws that apply to students who have disabilities and special education needs. While the DOE or other websites can’t take your child’s individual situation into account when providing you with information, our experienced education lawyers can. When you come to us with your questions, you’ll benefit from answers that are based on our years of experience and that apply specifically to your child. And when your student’s school fails to live up to its obligations under any of the laws that apply to students with disabilities or with special education needs, we know what steps to take to fight for your child’s rights.
Individualized Education Programs and 504 Plans
If you are a parent of a student who has been evaluated with a disability in Missouri, you are probably already aware of your school’s obligation to provide your child with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and to revise that plan each year. The IEP is vitally important to your child, as it is essentially the road map for you, your child, and their school when it comes to how your student will be taught during the year, and what the goals are for that year’s education.
Because the IEP is supposed to be a collaborative document, crafted by the school together with the parents of the student, it’s not unusual for there to be disagreements between the parents and the school when it comes to what is in their child’s IEP. Similarly, just because the IEP says the student will be educated in a certain way, teachers and school administrators don’t always follow it.
When there are conflicts with your child’s school over their IEP, the education attorneys from the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can help. We understand what the school’s obligations are under the law, and can work with you and the school to make sure your student receives the IEP they are entitled to – and that the program set forth in the IEP is followed by the school.
Students with disabilities are also entitled to a “Free Appropriate Public Education” under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Essentially, Section 504 requires schools to provide services that address the particular needs of students with disabilities. Whether and to what extent your child’s school provides these services to your child if they have one or more disabilities is something that you and the school may disagree about. When that happens, the education law attorneys from the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can help.
Student Discipline
All schools have codes of conduct that they expect students to follow. These typically relate to academic conduct (prohibiting cheating, for example) and other types of conduct. When the school accuses a student of violating a code of conduct, the consequences can range from very mild, such as a verbal warning, to very severe, such as suspension or expulsion.
In our experience, the way schools administer discipline can vary wildly. Investigations into student misconduct are often inadequate. Teachers and administrators may favor some students over others. They may also fail to follow their own code of conduct’s requirements when it comes to the process of disciplining students. These kinds of problem occur at all school levels – elementary, high school, college, and even graduate school.
When that happens, the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can help. We regularly represent students who have been accused of misconduct by their schools, and we will fight to protect your students’ rights while defending them against their school’s unfair allegations, biased enforcement, and procedural failures. Because our education attorneys know what schools in Missouri are supposed to do when it comes to fairly enforcing discipline on campus, we are able to highlight their mistakes and protect your student’s rights.
Bullying and Harassment
One of the most destructive and difficult things that can happen to a child at school is to be the target of bullying or harassment. If left unchecked, it can devastate a student’s spirit, affect their mental health, and directly affect their ability to learn. While Missouri schools are aware that they have an obligation to stop bullying among students, it is not unusual for individual schools or administrators to fail to adequately respond to bullying reports.
That’s where the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can help. In our experience, schools that have failed to respond to reports from parents about bullying incidents are much more responsive when they hear from the parents’ attorney. One reason for that is that we know what steps schools are required to take to enforce the anti-bullying policy that Missouri law requires them to have. We also know how to point out when a school has failed to take those steps, and when schools fail to respond to efforts to resolve bullying issues, we know how to take them to court to ask a judge to order them to do so.
Discrimination
There are a number of laws that prohibit schools from discriminating against students based on a wide range of individual characteristics. These include race, color, religion, sex, physical disability, and mental disability. In addition, and depending on the state of the law, they may also include sexual orientation and sexual identity. Because of the number of different laws that apply to various types of discrimination, it can be difficult to know exactly which one may apply in your student’s particular situation.
That is where the education attorneys from the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can help. We have a deep understanding of the many different laws that may apply when discrimination takes place. Some of them include:
- Title IV and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
- Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
- The Age Discrimination Act of 1975
- Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments of 2008
- The Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act
- USDA Title VI
If your child’s school fails to fix a discriminatory situation after you’ve notified it about the problem, a complaint can be filed with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education or, at the college level, with the Missouri Department of Higher Education. Depending on its status, it may also be possible to file complaints with the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. In addition, it may also be possible to file a lawsuit against the school asking for damages and a court order directing the school to remedy the situation.
The LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can help you evaluate your options when your student is facing discrimination at school. We can go to bat for your child with their school; can draft and file complaints when the school fails to take appropriate action in response to a discrimination complaint; and when necessary can take the school to court to get them to fix the problem.
Student Rights and Free Speech
Students in Missouri schools have Constitutional rights – including the right to free speech. Those rights don’t come without responsibilities, and schools also have rights, such as to maintain order in the classroom and on campus. That said, it’s not unusual for schools to overstep when it comes to trying to suppress students’ rights to express themselves.
This is another area where the education attorney from the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team can help. We are staunch believers in the students’ right to freely express themselves, but we also understand the legitimate concerns that schools have when it comes to fostering an environment that promotes education. We also know that some types of speech, such as threats, harassment, and bullying, are not protected and may themselves be illegal. But when schools overstep their bounds and unfairly or illegally punish free speech, our lawyers are there to help.
Contact us if your student is being disciplined or threatened with discipline because they are exercising their right to freely express themselves at school. We’ll evaluate the situation and discuss the different ways that our education attorneys can help.
The LLF National Law Firm Can Protect Your Student’s Rights in Missouri
If your child’s rights are not being respected by their school in Missouri, the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team is here to help. Our experienced education law attorneys regularly represent students across the US, including in Missouri, when their schools fail to live up to the legal obligations that may apply in any particular case. We can help at any level – elementary, middle school, high school, and college.
Whether your issue relates to special education, a bullying situation, unfair discipline, discrimination, or something else, we can help. Our attorneys have a comprehensive understanding of the various laws, rules, regulations, and procedures that apply to schools and students in Missouri, and we are ready to review your child’s situation and explain what we can do to fix it.
Call the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team today at 888.535.3686 or fill out our contact form and we’ll schedule a confidential consultation so you can tell us about your student’s case – and we can tell you what we can do to help.