Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), parents have a right to access their child's educational records. That is a critical right. Parents need their child's records to understand her special-education program and to participate as an equal member of her Individualized Education Program (IEP) team. In a recent case, Sandra S. v. Upper Darby [...]
How are charter schools funded? And how does that funding impact public school districts in Pennsylvania? Lindsay Burrill-VanDellen published an article in the Legal Intelligencer discussing the detrimental impact the current charter school funding scheme in Pennsylvania has on public school districts in the state and the importance of passing cyber charter school funding reform. [...]
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration implemented a student loan forgiveness program that would have brought significant financial relief to millions of borrowers across the nation. But the Supreme Court struck down the program in 2023. Lindsay Burrill-VanDellen published an article in the Legal Intelligencer exploring the Supreme Court's recent decision [...]
When can public schools regulate students' off-campus speech? Laura Raphael and David Berney published an article in the Legal Intelligencer exploring the Supreme Court's recent decision in Mahanoy v. B.L., 594 U.S. ___ (2021). The Court in Mahanoy balanced students’ First Amendments rights and schools’ need to maintain order in their classrooms and held [...]
Parents of children with special needs, and their attorneys, are often baffled by the poor quality of public educational evaluations. And those evaluations are key to setting the services that a child with special needs will receive in school, known as the child's individualized education program (IEP). In the latest issue of the Legal Intelligencer, [...]
With uprisings against police brutality in the headlines, what roles can attorneys play to address injustice? In December 2020, Attorney Heather J. Hulit published an article in the Legal Intelligencer exploring the vital roles that lawyers can play to serve the public good while acknowledging our limits. From ensuring that the adversarial process works when one [...]
Thirty years after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), workers with disabilities still face discrimination in employment. Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act—a relic from the 1930s—allows employers to pay lower wages to workers with disabilities. After years of unconscionable business practices authorized under the law, it is past time for the 14(c) [...]
Attorney Heather J. Hulit published an article in the Legal Intelligencer arguing that there is a dual problem with the identification of minority students for special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Policymakers have long recognized that minority students are inappropriately over-represented in special education, a problem known as "disproportionality" that the [...]
For Immediate Release: September 22, 2020 Contact: David Berney; Berney & Sang; 215.564.1030; djberney@berneylaw.com Pennsylvania Supreme Court vindicates children’s rights Holds that bullying victims have until 6 months after their 18th birthday to bring discrimination claims under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act. Philadelphia, PA.: Last week, in a long-awaited decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that bullying victims [...]
Parents of children with disabilities and their advocates pushed Secretary DeVos to maintain IDEA obligations for states during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yesterday, we won. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, enacted March 27, 2020, gave the Secretary 30 days to issue a report to Congress with her “recommendations on any additional waivers [...]
