lawprofessors

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995 Bullying has been a hot topic recently, due to its prevalence in schools: on the bus, in the classrooms, in the bathrooms, and generally wherever students interact.  Do you remember the school bully?  Or, maybe you have seen movie depictions such as the red haired youth with his raccoon fur hat who terrorizes the main character Ralphie in  A Christmas Story .  Did you know that students can be suspended or expelled from school for bullying? Per the California Education Code, section 48900(r) , students who bully can be kicked out of school. Such discipline is limited to pupils in the fourth grade or above and the legal definition of bullying is as follows ( summarized below): "Severe or pervasive physical or verbal act or conduct, including communications made in writing or by means of an electronic act ...that has or could be "reasonably predicted" to have the following impact on a "reasonable...

By  Michelle Ball , California Education Attorney for Students since 1995 In the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision Anchorage School District v. M.P. (July 19, 2012, No. 10-36065), the Court ruled that the lack of an updated annual IEP (Individualized Education Program) plan resulted in M.P. (student) not receiving a Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE).  The Court also ruled that the parents were to receive reimbursement for private tutoring and attorneys fees. In  Anchorage, Judge Paez stated that a school district has only two options if the annual IEP remains unsigned (e.g. a parent wants more changes, rejects it, etc.). The District must then either: 1)  Continue working with the parents to develop an IEP which is accepted by all, OR 2)  Revise the IEP on their own and file a due process hearing to seek administrative approval of the proposed IEP. This is significant.  There are many times that parents have a signed IEP, e.g. fr...