Special Education

Three federal laws, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act , along with their implementing regulations and related state laws, combine to ensure that students with disabilities can receive a free and appropriate public education, and that they are protected from discrimination on the basis of their disabilities. When public schools, charter schools, private schools that receive public funds, pre-schools, day care facilities, or post-secondary programs deny students an appropriate education, accommodations or discriminate against them, these laws provide a means to insure they are provided a proper educational program and necessary accommodations, as well as compensatory education for any education deficits they have suffered, and damages for discrimination they experienced.

Weir Greenblatt Pierce provides representation to children with educational, physical, mental health or developmental disabilities who have been denied an appropriate education, denied needed accommodations or who have been discriminated against. The types of claims that can be brought include:

• Denial of a Free and Appropriate Public Education
• Denial of Accommodations Necessitated by their Disabilities
• Discrimination Based on Disabilities
• Denial of Equal Access to Publicly Funded Educational and Extracurricular Activities
• Denial of Access to Day Care, Pre-School or Camps based on Disabilities
• Denial of Disability Related Accommodations in Colleges or other Post-Secondary Programs

Alan L. Yatvin chairs the firm’s Special Education and Children’s Disability Rights Practice Group. For more than thirty years Mr. Yatvin has been representing individuals who have suffered violation of their rights, and he has worked on behalf of children and students with disabilities for nearly twenty years. He has successfully litigated landmark cases on behalf of children with disabilities and their families in the federal courts, including the Pennsylvania District Court, the United States Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. In describing Mr. Yatvin when ruling for his clients in a case under the Individual’s with Disabilities in Education Act, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit wrote: “[W]e note that the litigation here was conducted by highly qualified and experienced counsel…” M.R. v. Ridley School District, Footnote 9. Mr. Yatvin is also co-counsel in a class action against the New York City Department of Education on behalf of students with diabetes. Every year since the program’s inception in 2004, Mr. Yatvin has been selected a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer® by Thomson Reuters. He holds the preeminent AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell, indicative of the highest rating in legal ability and ethical standards. Mr. Yatvin is a frequent lecturer on civil rights and disability rights, and he has taught at an annual program on trial advocacy at the Cardozo School of Law in New York City since 1985.