Category: Education Law

All colleges and universities have codes of conduct that include some variation of an academic honor or integrity code. These policies codify the school’s definition of cheating and plagiarism – two areas where students can often find themselves in trouble. Plagiarism, especially, seems to cause confusion with students. We...

COVID-19 has upended life as we know it, but this fall, the focus of many will be on the education system – both public and private, secondary and higher education. Now that schools and colleges have reopened, and after a summer where secondary and college administrators and teachers were faced with incredibly...

Many parents are shocked to find out that the private high school they are paying a sizeable amount of tuition for has much more discretion in terms of disciplining their child than a public school. Most public high school handbooks are similar and include state law regulations; whereas private high school handbooks...

Private and public colleges, as well as the federal government, have offered their various views and opinions on how sexual assault cases on college campuses should be handled. Title IX is the federal law that dictates how such cases must be handled procedurally by colleges who receive federal funding. Almost all colleges...

In this two-part blog series, I look at how different laws and statutes can help students and parents address bullying in school. Recent cases in Massachusetts and New York federal courts have addressed bullying in schools, and in both cases, the students overcame legal arguments by their respective school districts.

The Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) has issued an Announcement and an FAQ describing its new tax amnesty program.  The program will be open for enrollment beginning April 1, 2016 and enrollment and submission of information to the DOR will run through May 31, 2016.  The program...

Due Process and Educational Services From schoolyard pranks to serious offenses, students facing disciplinary action in Massachusetts public and charter schools have a right to due process and educational services. New Procedures for Suspending or Expelling Students Massachusetts schools used to have...

A WBUR analysis of state data shows that 603 kindergarten and pre-kindergarten students were suspended from Massachusetts public and charter schools in the 2014-15 school year. Reasons for the suspensions included hitting, disrupting, disrespecting, throwing things, and fighting. Suspending children that young raises a host of questions for...

The Boston Globe reported that one in four students in Massachusetts schools are victims of bullying. A recent study conducted in middle schools and high schools across Massachusetts found a link between bullying and violence in the home. The study found that students who had been physically hurt by a family member...

When a regular education student violates the school handbook, the school can discipline that student according to the policies and procedures set forth in the handbook. When the discipline involves a special education student, however, the IDEA requires the school to follow certain additional procedures when disciplining that student. Those procedures are...