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 […]
In what is one of, if not the first decision of its type in Connecticut, an independent hearing officer has ruled that the Groton Board of Education had grounds to terminate Paul Kadri its Superintendent of Schools. As in most districts, Kadri was under contract which provided for grounds for termination similar to those […]
Some of you may have noticed that this blog has gone somewhat silent in the last couple of months. It’s not that there haven’t been developments in education law worthy of comment. But business as usual has been difficult to reestablish. Instead, we seem to be establishing a “new normal”, much as I imagine schools in Colorado did in […]
School is back in session for the 2012-2013 academic year and the time has arrived for school districts to fully implement all aspects of Connecticut’s anti-bullying law. July 1, 2012 marked the deadline for implementation of certain remaining aspects of the state’s bullying law last revised in 2011. With the advent of a new school […]
On Wednesday, June 27, 2012, the Connecticut State Board of Education (CSBOE) adopted long awaited definitions of excused and unexcused student absences as required under Public Act 11-136, An Act Concerning Minor Revisions to the Education Statutes. The new definitions promise to promote consistency and reliability in the state’s data collection and reporting related to student attendance. […]
