Sherman Oaks, CA
Education Lawyer at Sherman Oaks, CA
Practice Areas: Education, Civil Rights, Personal Injury
OUTCOME: Reversal of Administrative Decision on All Issues
Court held that the IDEA's Least Restrictive Environment Requirement fully applied to extended school year services and also also that failing to consider the length of extended school year program nee ... ded by individual students violated federal law.
OUTCOME: Prevailed on core legal issue.
The decision makes clear that district members of IEP teams can no longer rely on a presumption that segregation will be beneficial for students and suggests that districts should provide actual eviden ... ce of how a student can supposedly benefit from time away from the general education classroom before they resort to a segregated special education placement. This will hopefully force district IEP teams to confront the overwhelming evidence that inclusion works for all students if they are provided with the supports they need to be successful within general education settings. The decision decisively dismisses two frequent arguments that schools use to support segregated classrooms. First, it makes clear that whether or not a student with significant disability-related challenges is performing at grade-level academically is irrelevant to the assessment of whether he is receiving academic benefit from his placement in the regular classroom. Rather, the question of whether a student is making substantial progress toward meeting his individual academic goals is the core measure of progress. Second, the decision made clear that the fact that a student requires supplementary aides, supports, and services to access the general education classroom is irrelevant to the analysis of whether he can make academic progress in a general education setting. The need for individual supports, even extensive supports, is not a reason to exclude a student from a general education classroom.
OUTCOME: Jury awarded $45,000,000.00 in damages.
Los Angeles Superior Court Jury awarded $45 million to nonverbal twins with autism for harm caused by the inappropriate use of corporal punishment and aversive behavioral interventions to gain behavior ... al compliance. The twins were seven years old and attending school in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District when the harm took place. The harm was compounded by the failure of the employees and administrators of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District to report the abuse to the proper authorities and law enforcement agencies thereby compounding the long term psychological and behavioral injuries suffered by the students.
OUTCOME: Statewide Preliminary Injunction Granted
On February 28, 2022, federal Judge Susan Illston, of the Northern District of California, issued an order called a “preliminary injunction” requiring the State of California to make sure that children ... with disabilities have access to virtual education. The order is part of a case is called EE v. California, that was brought on behalf of disabled students who are at a higher risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19. The case was necessary because some California school districts have denied parent requests to enroll disabled students in independent study, or to allow virtual attendance, even when it was not safe for the student to attend school in person. The court decided that the State of California is likely discriminating against these students on the basis of disability by not making sure that districts provide a program of virtual instruction equivalent to what non-disabled children receive. The court said that disabled students have a right to access education even if they cannot safely attend school in person. Under the court order, if a parent decides that their disabled child’s health would be put at risk by in-person instruction, the parent has the right to have their child enrolled in their district’s independent study program with access to IEP services, or receive a reasonable modification in the form of virtual access to their typical instruction and special education services. Parents have this right even if they signed a settlement waiving rights this school year.
OUTCOME: Court ordered remedy of 520 hours of assessment, training, and consultation by the staff at the Pivotal Response Training program of The University of California, Santa Barbara.
Court determined that Santa Monica-Malibu denied Student a free appropriate public education during the 2017-2018 school year by failing to implement Student’s positive behavior support and by using co ... rporal punishment and aversive behavioral interventions on Student. Court made factual findings that behavioral aide caused pain to gain behavioral compliance and that because of her actions Student’s behavior deteriorated markedly.
OUTCOME: Prevailed. Additional inclusion support ordered within general education.
Stopped District from increasing the time outside general education for student with special education eligibility of intellectual disability. https://www.dgs.ca.gov/OAH/Case-Types/Special-Education/Se ... rvices/-/media/Divisions/OAH/Special-Education/SEHO_Decisions/2019/1/2018060323.ashx
OUTCOME: Prevailed. Full inclusion program ordered.
Case seeking fully inclusive program for student with special education eligibility of intellectual disability. https://www.documents.dgs.ca.gov/oah/seho_decisions/2017070729-2017060297.pdf