SMRLS Court of Appeals Decision Gives Student Compensatory Tutoring

Laura Isenor, staff attorney with the Education Law Advocacy Project at Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS), logged an important decision for her client at the Minnesota Court of Appeals last month. Isenor filed a special education complaint to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) in August regarding the suspension of a student with an emotional disturbance for which no written notice was given. She secured a favorable decision for the client to receive compensatory education for missed school time because of the school’s actions. The school district then appealed MDEs decision and Isenor represented the client on the appeal.

The Court of Appeals affirmed and upheld MDE's investigation and complaint decision (Minn. Ct. App. 02/05/24, unpublished) because of the school district's failure to provide written notice of suspensions violated state law. That decision ordered the district to pay for 60 hours of tutoring at a rate of $50 an hour for the student’s missed school time.

In Minnesota procedural safeguards beyond those set forth in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) have been adopted. School districts are required to review these additional requirements with relevant personnel to emphasize the importance of compliance. IDEA requirements do not require suspension notices, but MDE can enforce the state’s law requiring written notice of suspension. Read the full Court of Appeals decision.

Education Law Advocacy Project (ELAP) Publishes New and Updated Resources

The Education Law Advocacy Project (ELAP) of Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS) recently updated its landmark handbook on student education rights to reflect new laws passed at the legislature this year. Children's Education Rights: A Handbook for Professionals Working with Minnesota Students was published last September and covers topics such as school choice, early childhood family education and learning, the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974, students with a disability, students experiencing homelessness, students’ right to be free of discrimination, student discipline, and more. The book was written and organized by Lilian Ejebe, ELAP lead attorney, and Cierra Johnson, certified student attorney, and supported by a grant from Proof Alliance and the Legal Services Corporation.

Brand new this year are fact sheets on Gifted and Talented Programs and Services, which covers identification and development of the talent of gifted students, and American Indian Education, which discusses additional education programs for Indigenous children. These fact sheets will be available soon on LawHelpMN.org.

ELAP was started at SMRLS in 1995 to help families enforce the educational rights of students through a collaborative approach. ELAP has represented thousands of students and their families in obtaining educational services, empowering families in navigating the school system, and in some cases, improving educational policies at the school district level. You can follow the project’s latest work and training opportunities on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

LSAP and Advocacy Partners Team Up to End Suspensions of K - 3rd Graders

A new law ending school suspensions for students in kindergarten through third grade comes after years-long advocacy efforts by the Legal Services Advocacy Project (LSAP), the legal aid community, and partners in the Solutions Not Suspensions Coalition, including Ed Allies. Grassroots advocacy by parents, youth, teachers, and community leaders led the effort.

What LSAP, legal aid, and community advocates know is that students who present with behaviors at school that are seen as necessitating punishment or dismissal are almost always students expressing their unmet needs. These young students are demonstrating undeveloped coping skills for the stress, frustration, or anxiety they're feeling at school. Add to that the devastating racial disparities in Minnesota's discipline data about who is suspended and who is supported. Signed into law in May, the new legislation will make it more difficult for Minnesota teachers and schools to suspend young children from the classroom as punishment and will regulate how and when recess detention is used. Schools will also be required to develop a process for parents to lodge official complaints about disciplinary actions.

“Legal Aid has long advocated that punishment, suspension, and isolation are the wrong tools to use against students who need added support. We know that a thoughtful response from a caring, trusted adult in the building can be far more effective than a disciplinary suspension,” explained LSAP staff attorney Jessica Webster. “Legal Aid wants every school to be a place where students can build skills to deal with stress and overwhelm — not a place that will punish and isolate the students who haven't quite mastered those skills.” Read more in New laws seek to make detentions, suspensions rarer in Minnesota elementary schools (startribune.com).

Legal Services Advocacy Project Makes Gains for Clients in Active Legislative Session

The 2023 legislative session was historic. The well publicized “trifecta” produced perhaps the most momentous and transformative set of legislation in Minnesota’s history. Many major advancements for legal aid's clients, and all Minnesotans, that were enacted include paid family leave and earned sick and safe leave time; codification of reproductive freedoms; passage of significant gun safety laws; a 100% carbon-free energy requirement by 2040; and a massive affordable housing funding bill, which includes a permanent rental assistance fund. 

While these broader issues captured headlines, the Legal Services Advocacy Project (LSAP) worked to pass a wide range of bills across a variety of substantive areas that made significant inroads in advancing protections for legal aid clients.  

• Universal free breakfast and lunch for Minnesota students; 

• Ending school suspensions for children in grades K-3;  

• The first increase in General Assistance in 30 years; 

• Giving survivors of domestic violence a path to relief from “coerced debt”;  

• MFIP disregard for participants receiving RSDI; 

• Major MFIP sanction reform and MFIP drug testing repeal; 

• A massive Child Tax Credit;  

• Banning school seclusion for children through 3rd grade; 

• Funding to fully fund wage supports for persons with disabilities holding subminimum wage jobs;   

• Extending the period within which to file a UI appeal to 45 days;  

• Providing for an annual COLA to the housing assistance grant;

• Extending MNCare coverage to undocumented persons;

• Providing for recertifications once every 12 months for MA recipients;

• Removing asset limits for persons applying for MA-EPD; 

• Eliminating the requirement that tenants must pay back rent to assert a habitability defense;

• Making eviction filings nonpublic until the court issues a final judgment;

• Providing that the new 14-day pre-eviction notice is prima facie evidence of an "emergency" for purposes of emergency assistance eligibility;

• Payday lending reform; and 

• Eliminating the court-imposed bar to taking actions under the Consumer Fraud Act.

LSAP — which is comprised of staff attorneys Jessica Webster, Ellen Smart, and Ron Elwood — annually champions both discrete and systemic policy issues that fundamentally impact the lives of thousands of Minnesotans. They work with lawmakers, legislative staff, government agencies, legal aid staff, and dedicated partner advocacy groups to design, negotiate, and refine hundreds of new and existing laws, and always with legal aid’s clients and mission guiding their work.

LSAP's Enduring Efforts Now Guarantee Free School Lunches for All

Universal school lunches are now a reality in Minnesota, thanks to the longstanding work of the Legal Services Advocacy Project (LSAP) and food security partners. Under the new universal school meals law signed by Governor Walz on March 17, 2023, every public and charter school student in Minnesota is guaranteed a free school breakfast and lunch each day.

With the new law effective July 1, Minnesota becomes the third state in the U.S. to require schools to serve free lunch and breakfast to all students, regardless of income, thus ending a history of lunch-shaming in Minnesota that has been under scrutiny by LSAP for the past fourteen years.

Last fall, LSAP requested that the Minnesota Department of Education investigate and consult the Attorney General after surveying more than 330 Minnesota school districts earlier in the year. LSAP found that 124 policies appeared to violate the Minnesota law that banned lunch shaming in July 2021. Legislation that LSAP, Hunger Solutions MN, and others had worked hard to help enact. The request resulted in a binding opinion by Attorney General Keith Ellison in November.

LSAP staff attorney Jessica Webster began work on lunch shaming in 2008, when the issue started to be reported, and along with partner groups, has worked on reaching this historic moment ever since.

"LSAP has always known that universal free school meals are the best way to fight child hunger, end lunch shaming, and ensure dignity for all children in school lunch rooms. It was a challenging 14-year advocacy effort, but we're excited and incredibly grateful to the state leaders who finally made it happen," Webster said.

Next fall, more than 800,000 Minnesota children will have guaranteed access to a free hot breakfast and lunch every day at school.