Education Insights

Analysis and practical guides on education.

12 articles, checklists, and guides on education law, written by the attorneys at MC Law. Every piece is general information, not legal advice — for a specific matter, contact the firm.

EducationHigher Education

Higher Education Toolkit: Records Requests, Hearing Preparation, and Appeals

This toolkit supplies the letters and worksheets a student needs in a college conduct or Title IX proceeding, ordered by when the decisions arise. It opens with the criminal exposure inquiry that must precede any substantive response and an opening request that obtains the eleven pieces of information the institution has and the student does not. It provides a procedure mapping worksheet that builds the strongest available theory at any institution, an education records request, challenges to interim measures and requests for supportive measures, and a contemporaneous procedural objection that preserves appeal grounds. It includes an investigation submission, an element-by-element analysis, a hearing statement, a sanction impact worksheet covering transcript notations and financial aid and immigration consequences, an appeal letter built around enumerated grounds, and complaints to the Office for Civil Rights and the accreditor.

Casey Scott McKaySeptember 2, 202619 min read

EducationHigher Education

College Conduct and Title IX Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a college conduct or Title IX matter from the notice through the appeal, in the order the decisions must be made. It leads with the criminal exposure question that must be answered before anything is written, and the advisor of choice provision that both parties routinely fail to use. It sets out the documents to obtain, including the handbook version in effect on the date of the alleged conduct, and the procedure mapping that supports the strongest available theory at any institution. It covers interim and supportive measures, the investigation, element-by-element hearing preparation, and the four strategies that should not be combined. It closes with sanction negotiation and the collateral consequences that outlast it — transcript notations, financial aid, immigration status, and licensure disclosure.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 31, 20269 min read

EducationHigher Education

Responding to a College Conduct or Title IX Proceeding: A Practical Guide

This guide covers a college conduct or Title IX proceeding from the notice through the appeal, in the order the decisions have to be made. It opens with the first forty-eight hours, including the criminal exposure question that must be answered before anything is written down, and the advisor of choice provision that both parties routinely fail to use. It explains how to obtain the governing documents and map every procedural obligation, because whether the institution followed its own published process is frequently the strongest theory at a private college and a substantial part of the case at a public one. It covers interim measures, the investigation, hearing preparation, and the four strategies available. It closes with sanction negotiation and the collateral consequences — transcript notations, financial aid, immigration status, and licensure — that outlast any sanction.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 23, 202627 min read

EducationHigher Education

College Student Rights: Conduct Proceedings, Title IX, and Education Records

A college conduct proceeding can end a degree, a career path, and an immigration status, and it runs on procedures most students discover for the first time while inside them. This article explains the difference between a public institution's due process obligations and a private institution's contractual ones, and why the second is frequently the more useful theory. It distinguishes disciplinary dismissals from academic ones, which receive very different scrutiny, and covers the conduct process from notice through hearing and appeal. It then addresses Title IX grievance procedures — supportive measures, the advisor of choice, live hearings and cross-examination, the standard of proof — and the parallel criminal proceeding that makes every statement consequential. It closes with education records, transcript notations, the disability accommodations that apply throughout, and the financial and immigration consequences that outlast any sanction.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 15, 202628 min read

EducationStudent Rights

School Discipline Toolkit: Records Requests, Hearing Preparation, and Appeals

This toolkit provides the requests, worksheets, and letters that turn a school discipline matter from a meeting you were summoned to into a proceeding you are prepared for. It includes a comprehensive records request, a removal-day count request that surfaces the threshold question schools rarely track, a written evaluation request that can bring an unidentified student within the discipline protections, and a manifestation meeting request with the documents to demand first. It provides an incident timeline, a comparator worksheet, a meeting question sheet, a confirming email template, hearing preparation materials, an appeal letter organized by the grounds that actually win, an expungement and record amendment request, a bullying report, a restraint incident request, and an Office for Civil Rights complaint.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 7, 202618 min read

EducationStudent Rights

School Discipline Response Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a school discipline matter from the phone call to the appeal. It opens with the five things to establish before walking into the meeting, including whether law enforcement has been involved, and the four documents to obtain first. It sets out the removal-day count that changes more outcomes than any other question, the manifestation determination and stay-put protections, and the written evaluation request that can bring an unidentified student within them. It covers the meeting itself with the questions to ask and the documents never to sign, the alternatives to request by name, and the appeal with the grounds that actually win. It closes with expungement, the situations that have their own rules, and the free help available in every state.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 30, 202610 min read

EducationStudent Rights

Responding to a School Discipline Matter: A Practical Guide for Parents

This guide covers a school discipline matter from the phone call through the appeal, in the order the work has to be done. It opens with what to do in the first hour and the four documents to obtain before any meeting, then explains the question that changes the most outcomes — how many days the student has been removed this year, counting partial days and in-school removals. It walks through the manifestation determination and stay-put protections for students with disabilities, the written evaluation request that can bring an unidentified student within them, and how to prepare for and conduct the meeting itself. It closes with the appeal, what actually wins on it, expungement of the record, and the free help that exists in every state and is almost never used.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 22, 202627 min read

EducationStudent Rights

School Discipline and Student Rights: Suspension, Expulsion, Searches, and Speech

School discipline is the point where a child's education, a family's schedule, and a body of constitutional and statutory law collide, usually in a fifteen-minute meeting nobody prepared for. This article explains the due process that actually attaches to a suspension, which is less than parents expect for short removals and considerably more for long ones, and the additional protections that apply when the student has a disability — including the manifestation determination that changes everything and the stay-put rule most parents have never heard of. It covers student speech from the substantial disruption standard through the off-campus question the Supreme Court addressed recently, the reduced search standard that applies at school and its limits, and the involvement of school resource officers that converts a discipline matter into a delinquency case. It closes on truancy, records, and the alternatives to exclusion.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 14, 202628 min read

EducationSpecial Education

Special Education Advocacy Toolkit: Evaluations, IEPs, and Due Process

A working kit for special education advocacy. Section A holds the letters that start and shape every case: an evaluation request, a prior written notice demand, a records request, and a parent concerns statement. Section B holds review instruments: a goal quality rubric, a service specification table, an IEP review worksheet, and an evaluation report reading guide. Section C holds enforcement instruments: a service log audit worksheet, a compensatory education demand, and a state complaint template. Section D holds dispute filings: a due process complaint outline, a ten day private placement notice, and a manifestation determination challenge. Section E holds Section 504 and OCR instruments. Section F holds a transition worksheet. Section G collects the primary authorities.

Casey Scott McKayApril 20, 202616 min read

EducationSpecial Education

IEP, Evaluation, and Dispute Checklist: A Practical Checklist

A checklist for the whole special education sequence. It runs the written evaluation request that starts the legal clock, what to do when a district refuses, the records to demand before every meeting, the four tests every goal must pass and the four elements every service must specify, the predetermination warning signs, the follow up email that becomes the record, the independent evaluation request, the service log audit that produces the most provable violation in the field, the disciplinary day count and manifestation determination, extended school year and transition, and a forum selection guide matching each type of problem to the right dispute path.

Casey Scott McKayApril 6, 20269 min read

EducationSpecial Education

Getting and Enforcing an IEP: A Practical Guide for Parents

This guide runs special education from the first suspicion that something is wrong through enforcement. It covers writing the evaluation request that starts the legal clock, what to do when a district refuses, preparing for an IEP meeting including the records to request in advance and the parent concerns statement to submit in writing, how to test whether goals are measurable and whether services are specified in a way that can be enforced, the follow up email that becomes the record, how to obtain and use an independent educational evaluation, how to check whether services are actually being delivered, and which of the four dispute paths fits which problem.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 23, 202629 min read

EducationSpecial Education

Special Education Law: IDEA, IEPs, Section 504, and Parent Rights

Roughly one in seven public school students receives special education services, and the statute that governs them is procedural to its core: parents win by using the process, not by being right about pedagogy. This article explains what a free appropriate public education requires after Endrew F. raised the standard above Rowley, how child find and evaluation obligations work and what to do when a district refuses to evaluate, what an IEP must contain and how the team operates, the difference between an IEP and a Section 504 plan, the least restrictive environment requirement, the procedural safeguards that give the statute its force including prior written notice and stay put, how disciplinary removals trigger a manifestation determination, and the dispute paths from a facilitated meeting through a due process hearing and into federal court.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 9, 202628 min read