The Department of Children and Families (DCF) has issued a revised policy on “Mandated Reporters Failure to Report” providing a mechanism for on-line reporting as an alternative to telephonic reporting. The new policy, following a year long pilot, provides a welcome alternative to long waits on hold which callers can experience. Specifically, revised policy 22-1-3 permits on-line […]
The Connecticut State Board of Education (State Board) adopted Standards for Educational Opportunities for Students Who Have been Expelled (Standards) onJanuary 3, 2018. The State Board acted in response to P.A. 17-200, An Act Concerning Education Mandate Relief, containing a directive that the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) adopt such standards. The Standards delineate two permissible options […]
On Friday, October 28, 2016, the United States Supreme Court announced that it will hear an appeal from a ruling by the 4th Circuit in the controversial case of G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board, 116 LRP 15374 (4th Cir. 04/19/16). In Gloucester, a transgender male high school student sought a preliminary injunction to allow his […]
School employees who fail to report child abuse may face tougher penalties for failing to report such incidents to DCF or the police as a result of a law passed by the General Assembly. Public Act 15-205, An Act Protecting School Children, increases, from a class A misdemeanor to a class E felony, the penalty […]
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., […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
