Connecticut Education Lawyer & Attorney : Berchem, Moses & Devlin Law Firm : CT Public Schools

If you have the patience to click on each individual numerical link on the State Department of Education website under Special Education Due Process Hearing Decisions, you too may be able to discern the following statistics from the 2007 hearing decisions.  These numbers are based on only those cases filed in 2007 that were also decided in 2007; it will not include those that were filed in 2006 and decided in 2007, or those filed in 2007 and decided in 2008.  None of the 2008 decisions have been posted yet.

Number of cases filed and withdrawn or dismissed due to settlement: 154

Number of cases filed by parents and dismissed on motion from the board: 6

Number of cases decided "on the merits": 15

Of the cases decided "on the merits", number decided in favor of boards: 9

Of the cases decided "on the merits", number decided in favor of boards where the parent was not represented by counsel ("uncontested cases"): 5

Remaining decisions in favor of boards in "contested cases": 4

Of the cases decided "on the merits", number decided in favor of parents: 4

Split decisions (part of ruling in favor of board, part in favor of parent): 2

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Two Historic Law Firms Join Forces to Become Pre-eminent Connecticut Firm

Two of the oldest law firms in Connecticut have joined forces in a move that will create one of the most comprehensive legal services businesses in the state. Berchem, Moses & Devlin, P.C. and Wake, See, Dimes, Bryniczka & Bloom (of Westport, Conn.) have combined their practices, as of March 1, 2008, resulting in a staff of nearly 30 attorneys covering 14 different law specialties. The new firm will operate under the name of Berchem, Moses & Devlin, P.C., and will maintain existing offices at 75 Broad Street in Milford and 27 Imperial Avenue in Westport.

Areas of practice at Berchem, Moses & Devlin include education law, business and commercial law, labor and employment, civil litigation, land use, estate planning, and real estate law. The newly combined firm will have a particular strength in education and municipal law.

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Proposed legislation introduced in today's session of the General Assembly includes Raised Bill 5868, An Act Concerning Recruiting at High Schools, and Raised Bill 649, An Act Concerning School Learning Environment. 

RB 5868 would require all boards of education to adopt a written policy on or before January 1, 2009 regulating recruitment by the armed forces, prospective employers, colleges and other post-secondary institutions in high schools.  The policy proposed by this statute would prohibit the recruitment of any student under 15 years of age unless parental consent has been provided, would require the recruiter to obtain permission from the school principal before conducting recruiting, would require interview appointments to be set up through the guidance office, and would limit recruitment activities to designated areas of the school.  The required policies would also require parental notification that participation in recruitment activities is voluntary, and would require districts to release directory information about students to recruiters unless parents have opted out (with a required process for notification and opt-out as well).  Consistent with the Patriot Act, recruiters from the armed forces would have equal access to students as compared to other types of recruiters at high schools.

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In previous blog entries, we have covered the December order issued by the Connecticut Medical Examining Board (CMEB) against Dr. Charles Ray Jones.  On January 18, 2008, Dr. Jones filed an appeal of the CMEB order, claiming that the order was in error and specifically claiming bias on the part of one of the CMEB members who participated in the decision.  Papers filed by Dr. Jones and his attorneys claim that following the hearing decision, his attorney was approached by a member of the audience claiming to have knowledge of the bias of one of the doctors sitting on the panel.  This alleged bias is the subject of a series of affidavits filed by family members in State Superior Court claiming to have sought treatment for chronic Lyme Disease with this physician, who allegedly made a series of derogatory statements about the existence of chronic Lyme as a recognized condition and indicated that the treatment of such a non-existent condition would be fraudulent.

Although no final decision on the appeal has yet been issued, on February 19, 2008, the court issued a temporary partial stay of the CMEB order.  According to the February court order, the civil penalty in the amount of $10,000 has been paid into escrow and will remain there until the appeal is resolved, and the 2-year probationary period has been stayed.  However, the provision of the CMEB order requiring monitoring of Dr. Jones' practice by an independent pediatrician remains in effect, with some modifications.

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Today's bills filed in the General Assembly include Raised Bill 5833, a proposed amendment to Connecticut General Statutes Section 53a-119, which would add as a felony criminal charge "obtaining school accommodations by misrepresenting a child's residence".  This would be defined as a parent, guardian or person acting on behalf of such person (or student if over the age of 18), intentionally misrepresenting the town of residence of the child, with the intent to obtain school accommodations from a school district other than the one in which the child resides.

Although other sections of the criminal code relating to theft of public goods have been cited in connection with the arrest of parents in connection with this type of offense, this would make it clear that such conduct is a criminal offense without having to rely on an interpretation of another more general section of the criminal code.  This bill has been referred to the Judiciary Committee.

For other new bills filed, read on...

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Raised Bill 5702, referred to the Committee on Public Health in this session of the General Assembly, would allow a "respiratory care practitioner" to issue a written certification to a local or regional board of education providing that a child diagnosed with asthma be permitted to possess an asthmatic inhaler at all times while attending school.

This legislation would also add a check-box to the standard health assessment form completed by parents and physicians prior to school enrollment which would indicate whether such a certification has been issued allowing the child to carry an asthma inhaler in school. The bill would make similar changes to other portions of the statutes permitting self-administration of an asthma inhaler by a student who has been given the appropriate certification.

Would this legislation result in any changes in policy in your Connecticut school district? Tell us by posting a comment (see link at right).

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If the last few days are any indication, it promises to be a busy season for the General Assembly, particularly at the Committee on Education.  Multiple bills have been raised in both the Senate and the House pertaining to education of school-age children, and most of these have been referred to the Education committee. While by no means an exhaustive list, here are a few of the more interesting bills submitted to the committee or raised by the committee so far this session:

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The Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations recently issued a decision, Region 16 Board of Education, Decision No. 4270 (2007), in which it held that a unilateral change in the workload of Special Education Teachers constituted a prohibited practice. In doing so, the Board created an exception to the general rule that a unit wide fixed practice must be demonstrated in order for a union to establish a unilateral change based upon prior practice. 

Generally, it is an unfair labor practice for an employer to change a term or condition of employment in the face of a unit wide fixed past practice. Accordingly, where there has been a mixed practice, unions have been hard pressed to prove a violation. 

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In a recent decision, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals (Illinois) has upheld the dismissal of a school district's lawsuit challenging certain provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) on the grounds that since NCLB was enacted after the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the later-enacted NCLB provisions would trump any conflicting requirements in the IDEA.  Some parents and school districts have challenged the NCLB provisions requiring certain forms of standardized testing to be administered to all students, including those with disabilities, and limiting the forms of accommodations and modifications that may be made and the number of students who can be exempt from the testing, on the grounds that those provisions violate the "individualization" requirements of the IDEA.  The IDEA generally requires those accommodations and modifications necessary to permit a student to receive a free appropriate public education to be incorporated into a disabled student's IEP and implemented in all applicable situations, including testing.  However, in Board of Education of Ottawa Township v. Spellings, the court decided that even if these provisions are conflicting, Congress enacted NCLB more recently than IDEA and therefore must be assumed to have overridden the individualization requirements of IDEA with the accountability provisions of NCLB.

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