Your son is a special-education student. The school district just issued a Prior Written Notice containing verifiably untrue statements and personal attacks on you and your advocate. What do you do?
Your daughter is a general-education student. She just received a five-day suspension for alleged conduct she didn’t commit. You worry that this suspension will come back to haunt her when she applies to college or a job. Now what?
While you generally cannot “appeal” a suspension or other misinformation in your child’s educational records, you are not without recourse. Under California law, Parents may challenge content that is inaccurate; an unsubstantiated personal conclusion or inference; a conclusion or inference outside of the observer’s area of competence; not based on the personal observation of a named person with the time and place of the observation noted; misleading; and/or in violation of the privacy or other rights of the pupil. (Cal. Ed. Code § 49070(a).) This is called a “records challenge.”
When you submit a records challenge, the school district superintendent or designee must meet with you within 30 days to hear why the disputed content should be removed or amended. If the records challenge is denied, you must appeal to the governing board of the school district before potentially seeking relief in a California superior court.
Don’t fight this battle alone. Please call the Leigh Law Group at (415) 399-9155 today to schedule a FREE 30-minute consultation to determine whether we can help you with your records challenge.