Since Congress has explicitly rejected the Supreme Court’s decisions in Sutton v. United Air Lines, Inc. and Toyota Motor Manufacturer v. Williams, some school districts may need to remove references to these cases from training materials and guidance for staff on defining “substantial limitation” and “major life activities”. In addition, a new list of major life activities explicitly […]
Commissioner of Education Mark McQuillan issued new guidance dated October 1, 2008 to all school districts to help implement the new requirements of Connecticut General Statutes Section 10-233c requiring all suspensions to be in-school rather than out-of-school (unless certain requirements are met) as of July 1, 2009. This guidance was required by the legislation passed last […]
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the decision of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut in the case of Doninger v. Niehoff et al., denying a preliminary injunction to a Burlington, Connecticut student that would have allowed the student to run for class office despite being stripped […]
The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, Judge Eginton, has ruled in the case of E.K. v. Stamford Board of Education, 3:07cv00800 (WWE) that the due process rights of a student expelled for leaving threatening racist messages on the voice mail of a female student (among other offenses) were not violated when the […]
The Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO) issued a letter to a parent seeking access to records that clarifies the scope and requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), noting that the school is not generally required by FERPA to provide a parent with access to school calendars or general notices such as announcements […]
The newly proposed administrative regulations from the State Department of Education on the subject of seclusion and restraint of special education students were published in the Connecticut Law Journal on July 15, 2008, so they are now officially open for public comment for a 30-day period until August 15, 2008. A public hearing has also been […]
Have you ever received a complaint that you were unfairly charging a member of the public for copying documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) because you charged separately for copying each side of a double-sided piece of paper? The Court of Appeals now says this practice is perfectly legitimate, since the dictionary definition of […]
The passage of PA 08-160 which repeals C.G.S. 10-222d, the state’s existing bullying statute effective July 1, 2008, and adds new requirements and changes the definition of bullying seemingly has gone unnoticed. The lack of attention may be because this Act also addresses controversial changes to in school suspension laws which have garnered much attention. Notwithstanding […]
With the close of the 2008 legislative session, HB 5826 An Act Concerning School Learning Environment has passed. The bill postpones from July 1, 2008 to July 1, 2009 the effective implementation date for PA 07-66 which generally prohibits out of school suspensions and extends from five to ten days, the maximum length of in-school […]
If you have the patience to click on each individual numerical link on the State Department of Education website under Special Education Due Process Hearing Decisions, you too may be able to discern the following statistics from the 2007 hearing decisions. These numbers are based on only those cases filed in 2007 that were also […]
