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Connecticut Education Law Blog

Effective now: New Options for Suspensions and Expulsions for First Time Offenders, and New Requirements for Formal Expulsion Notices; Administrators To Face New Rules For Suspensions For The 2008-2009 School Year

With seemingly little notice or fan-fare, the General Assembly modified a number of education statutes regarding student discipline including the statute providing for the out of school suspension of students.  PA 07-66, effective July 1, 2008, generally prohibits out-of-school suspensions, and extends from five to 10 days, the maximum length of in-school suspensions. Current law […]

Department of Motor Vehicles to Hold Public Hearing on Petition for Declaratory Ruling Regarding Student Transportation Issues

There has been some confusion lately as to whether state statutes concerning appropriate license endorsements for school buses also apply to the drivers of passenger cars used to transport school students to extracurricular activities. So much confusion, that the State of Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) recently received a Petition for Declaratory Ruling seeking clarification […]

Supreme Court Ruling on Special Education

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) grants parents independent legal rights which encompass the entitlement to a free appropriate public education (FAPE) for their child.  The decision means that non-attorney parents can litigate IDEA claims in federal court unrepresented by legal counsel, because they are acting on […]

Federal Rules for Electronic Discovery

This past December, new Federal Court rules for electronic discovery went into place. In short, the rules require the retention and disclosure of electronically stored data, including e-mails, which relate to any federal court lawsuits in which the district is involved. Specifically, the new rules provide that (1) a party may serve interrogatories concerning and/or request […]

OSERS Issues New Guidance on Discipline

Responding to requests for clarification of the new 2006 IDEA regulations issued in the area of student discipline, OSERS issued non-binding guidance entitled “Questions and Answers on Discipline Procedures”, found at 47 IDELR 227 (OSERS 2007).  In this commentary, OSERS states that the “2004 amendments to section 615(k) of the IDEA were intended to address […]

SDE Issues Proposed Revisions to State Special Education Regulations

On March 8, 2007, Interim Chief of the Bureau of Special Education Dr. Nancy Cappello issued her Proposed Revisions to the State Special Education Regulations.  Subsequent inquiries to the State Department of Education (SDE) have yielded no announcement of dates when public comments will be accepted concerning the Proposed Regulations.  However, numerous groups and individuals […]

Redacting Student Names

Federal District Court Case Further Clouds Issue of When Student Names May Be Redacted from Disclosed Documents In a world where few disputes of this nature find their way into federal district court, every published decision on the issue of what constitutes an “educational record” for purposes of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA, […]