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Basic Resources – Education Law in Montgomery County, Maryland and beyond…

pat.hoover — Tue, 15 Dec 2015 22:04:14 +0000

For the basics in online resources and authorities check out the following group of sites and web pages. I emailed this recently to the members of the Ed Law section of our local bar association. Anyone interested in learning the details of public school laws and regulations in Montgomery County, Maryland should, at a minimum, be familiar with the following eight page compendium of resources: hooverlaw.com/…/Education-Law-Section-BAMC-MD.

hooverlaw.com/…/Education-Law-Section-BAMC-MD

Education Law Section – BAMC, MD

Poolesville ES Rocks!

pat.hoover — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 04:29:07 +0000

Poolesville Elementary School is amazing. Earier this year when a happy little 5th grader fell seriousy ill and was left unable to attend class, Poolesville’s PTA came to the rescue. The PTA helped the young students’s family buy and the school’s staff utilize, a very cool high tech solution: a $3,000 robotic-mobile, 2-way, video camera iPad setup. Now this little 5th grader is able to listen, see and answer up in class, converse with teachers and friends, takes notes, tests and much more! See the full story here.

Ed Law Section Updated Monthly Meetups @ MCBA

pat.hoover — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 13:12:04 +0000

Here is the newly updated schedule of monthly meetings for the Education Law Section Membership – all interested parties are welcome to attend our open meetings!

Location: 27 West Jefferson Ave., Rockville, MD 20850, phone 301.762.8376 Offices of the Montgomery County Bar Association

Time: Noon Lunch Meetups Start 12:00 PM

Dates:
October 8, 2015
November 12, 2015
December 10, 2015
January 14, 2016
February 11, 2016
March 10, 2016
April 14, 2016
May 12, 2016v
June 9, 2016

USSC Review 4 Juvenile Lifers

pat.hoover — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 02:37:00 +0000

Finally, our nation’s large population of under age juveniles (now grown men and most well into middle age) who were once sentenced to life in prison – some younger than 13 years old – for the most serious capital offenses , may now hope for relief through newly decided judicial review of their status as Juvenile Lifers. The US out ranks all other developed nations in the numbers of prison inmates serving out life sentences behind bars for crimes committed when these inmates were then young, underage juveniles. Three years ago, Miller v. Alabama, the Supreme Court ruled that sentencing juvenile offenders to to life in prison amounts to clear violation of the 8th Amendment to the US Constitution. The 8th Amendment prohibits our courts from imposing a sentences that constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. By virtue of this landmark holding, the Supreme Court’s decision in Miller all but ended our nation’s shameful practice of locking away children for life, no matter the crime.

The Miller court brought judicial acceptance of and recognition to the scientific and societal norm of what is self-evident to many: juveniles do not posses anything close to the brain development, conduct control, maturity of judgment or the appreciation of their conduct, as do grown adults. It was, after all, for this reason well over 100 hundred years ago, Chicago lead the nation by establishing the first Juvenile Court; separate and apart from the regular court of criminal prosecution and punishment. Despite this, following the decision many states have fixed on a very limited reading of Miller. Ruling that the decision is procedural only and does not apply retroactively to any juvenile lifer whose sentence came before Miller was decided. In contrast, however, many other states take the opposite view and allow for renewed judicial of their prisons’ pre-Miller inmates.

Maryland’s OPD, joined by attorneys, law firms and the ABA have challenged the “procedural” only rational imposed by the opposing states who refuse to apply any retroactive review of those prisoners sentenced to life based the Miller holding. And so next month, in Montgomery v. Louisiana the Supreme Court will once again revisit its earlier decision and hold oral argument, hearing from both sides – for and against retroactivity – and then this term, decide whether Juvenile Lifers may yet hope for relief from the courts.

Friday's Ed Law Lunch Meetup With Jennfer Barmon, Esq.

pat.hoover — Sun, 14 Jun 2015 19:07:17 +0000

You shoulda been there! On June 12th Jennifer Barmon, Esq., Maryland’s powerhouse attorney with the Office of Public Defender and expert in all all things education and juvenile law related, joined us Friday for our monthly meeting of an amazing hour. Jennifer was so great throughout the Education Law section meeting of the bar association here in Rockville, MD. Freely sharing her wisdom, experience and her many noteworty achievements in the law for and about Maryland’s children and youth. The entire group of attorney members were enthralled hearing Jen’s generous and so helpful attorney procedure and practice tips, traps, amazing stories from her years on the job and general advice for attorneys practicing in the often combined fields of school, court and youth. Thanks Jennifer! And congratulations on your new position, DOE is lucky to have you and we are going to miss you!

New Best Bud 4 College Students

pat.hoover — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 16:20:01 +0000

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has aggressively taken on a significant number of highly predatory, unethical business groups disguised as colleges and post high school training centers and only too eager to rip off students at every turn by means ever mounting student loan debt. These 4profit “schools” are quick to service their students with crushing interest rate student loans and for most, offer little to no real education. By going after the scourge of post-high school, student loan factories who appear to operate legitimate insitutions of learning, CFPB has become many a struggling young student’s new and most welcome, Best Friend Ever! Capturing hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal student loans – either wiped out entirely or written way down – the enforcement actions CPFB has brought benefits many thousands of fotherwise inancially ruined college and trade school students. CFPB has been an outstanding champion of our most vulnerable citizens, our young students.The Corinthian group, notorious as a large 4profit student loan mill, was left nearly bankrupt by CFPB when forced to disgourge millions in illegal student debt and agree to refrain from ever again making student loans. The ITT group of 4profit post secondary schools was very recently named as CPFB’s latest target in its efforts to take out the illegal lender groups whose stock in trade is the art of the student loan, not education.

No Prom 4U2! High School Couple Post Pre-Prom AirRifle Pic's Get Suspended …

pat.hoover — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 03:36:16 +0000

When a youg Massachusetts high school couple recently posted their pre-prom photo shoot on FB – all dressed up for their big night and holding realistic looking assault airsoft rifles, instead of that special prom date they’d expected, both teens were suspended by their school and were banned from their high school prom. Check it out and see if you agree teh schhool has blown the photos out of all proportion as one dad argues…

See what you think: News Clip

Kids Suffer Too! Washington: Update/Reauthorize JJDPA, Please!

pat.hoover — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 23:50:12 +0000

The shameful legislative ice age we are all living in affects children and teens as much as — or, perhaps, even more so than — adults. Since 1974, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act has brought success and real benefit to our youth for generations. The old regulations still in place are no longer responsive or nearly as effective as revised regulations would likely bring to our communities. So then, why is it that such a win-win for all remains stalled in Congress? For more details see What’s the Holdup and < Juvenile Justice Policymakers (please take notice)

What a White House Endorsement Means for Ending Zero Tolerance Policy

pat.hoover — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 18:52:54 +0000

“HHS Secretary Sebelius joins U.S. Dept. of Education Secretary Arne Duncan at Rolling Terrace Elementary School in Montgomery County, MD” – Image via Wikimedia Commons

The Obama administration issued a series of guidelines this Wednesday calling for school systems to relax their harsh disciplinary measures that often introduce the criminal justice system into the lives of students, effectively widening the school-to-prison pipeline. They noted how these policies come down disproportionately on black, hispanic, and other minority students.

In 2013, and in years gone by, we’ve seen egregious cases of school systems who, like many other government organizations, were all too eager to bring down the hammer on kids. Many of those cases we’ve written about here on Hooverlaw Memos, in our newsletter, or linked to through our social media pages. For instance, Durham Public Schools of North Carolina suspended 2,425 black students in the 2009-2010 school year, a whopping 14.1% of all black students. In the same year, only 3.3% of white students were suspended. Or take Florida’s Broward County Public Schools, whose nation-leading arrest numbers a few years ago consisted of mostly minorities. It wasn’t until 2011, when pressure from the N.A.A.C.P, a new superintendent, and the newly published downfalls of Zero Tolerance made the school system do some soul searching, before they prioritized keeping students in school as opposed to on the streets for minor offenses like marijuana possession.

To deliver the new guidelines, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan chose Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore, where the State Board of Education has worked on reforming disciplinary regulations. Once a top offender of shoveling youth into the penal system through suspensions and expulsions, Baltimore City Public School System reduced the number of out-of-school suspensions from 26,300 in 2003 to under 9,000.

In the following paragraph, Kimberly Hefling of the Associated Press summarizes the guidelines:

Among the recommendations:

—Ensure that school personnel understand that they, not security or police officers, are responsible for administering routine student discipline.

—Draw clear distinctions about the responsibilities of school security personnel.

—Provide opportunities for school security officers to develop relationships with students and parents.

While it’s impossible for the federal government alone to catalyze change in every classroom across the country, the administration’s announcement to thwart modern day forces of civil inequality is a big step in the direction of ending Zero Tolerance Policy. On the question of discipline for the Baltimore Sun, Jane Sundius writes, “Current practices exclude children from school — and do so in a discriminatory way. We must embrace both the federal recommendations and the new Maryland school discipline regulations if we are to fulfill the civil rights of all Maryland’s children to fair treatment and to an education.”

Zero Tolerance Does Not Make Schools Safer: Report

pat.hoover — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 20:52:45 +0000

Does zero tolerance achieve its intended effect?

Nope.

That’s the finding of a new report from the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit research organization that works to improve justice policy. Vera analyzed current research to determine whether zero tolerance policies for minor offenses keep schools safe.

“The research findings and other data on zero tolerance suggest that these policies -– which have been in force for 25 years -– have no real benefit and significant adverse effects,” the report states. “There’s growing consensus that the most effective schools reinforce positive behavior and respond to behavioral problems on a case-by-case basis.”

Read the full report on Vera’s website.