In a decision issued July 24, 2014, Senior United States District Court Judge Jack Weinstein has authored an opinion proposing a new standard for evaluating whether the IEP of a special education student who has experienced bullying provides that student with a free appropriate public education (FAPE). In T.K. v. New York City Dept. of Educ., […]
Teachers generally enjoy job protection which is much greater than all other public sector employees. Such laws have been much criticized in recent years as a result of the increased focus on student performance. Reports of “rubber rooms” in New York, where incompetent teachers were parked, have been much publicized and much maligned. Some states, […]
While the concept is intuitive, a recent study has confirmed that teacher absenteeism has a direct and measurable impact on student learning. In a report entitled “Roll Call: The Importance of Teacher Attendance” the National Center on Teacher Quality found that teachers miss on average 11 out of 186 days of school; and one in […]
The way student records are created, accessed and stored is changing drastically increasing concerns about schools’ ability to protect student privacy as required under laws such as the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Schools are shifting from a traditional paper model to the electronic creation, […]
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) Chief Catherine Lhamon along with U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)Education Opportunities Section head Anurima Bhargava attended the April 2014 School Law Seminar held in New Orleans and fielded questions from attending school attorneys who sought clarification of the Departments’ position related to harassment standards for student […]
As this year’s snow-filled winter continues in Connecticut, so too do school cancellations for districts across the state. While students may enjoy the instant gratification that a snow day brings, few are as excited in June when make-up days must be added to the school calendar. Disruptions in the class schedule also impact teachers and […]
Earlier this year, FERPA was amended to grant child welfare agency representatives, agency caseworkers, or a tribal organization access to the education records of children within their care and protection. The new exemption was created in order to prevent delays and complications in the education of children in foster care. Prior to the amendment, child […]
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (“OSERS”) published a new “Dear Colleague” letter in August which discusses best practices for handling of bullying cases involving a student with a disability. The letter describes that the bullying of a student with a disability that results in the student not receiving meaningful educational benefit constitutes a […]
Although rarely done, in the past few years, several Connecticut public school districts have been featured in the news for seeking criminal remedies against parents for theft of educational services. Parents who allegedly enrolled and sent their child to a school located in a town or city other than the one where the child actually resided […]
While the other aspects of Connecticut’s new gun control law have received more notoriety, the new law included a number of provisions intended to improve school safety and security including the following: Requires each school to have a safety committee; Requires each school to conduct a risk vulnerability assessment; Require each school to have a […]
