• A ruling from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, invalidating eight of the state's special education regulations which violated the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
  
  
• Filing of a class action complaint in federal district court against the Newark Public Schools and the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) and their employees for their failure to identify, locate, refer, and evaluate students for special education eligibility; failure to provide eligible students with special education and related services; and failure to provide students with "compensatory education" to compensate for the educational services of which they were deprived.
  
  
• Filing of a complaint in federal district court challenging the Jersey City Public Schools, NJDOE and their individual employees for their failure to provide appropriate services to a student with dyslexia for more than ten years.
  
  
• An administrative decision by NJDOE finding that the Ridgefield School District's segregation of five students with disabilities on a class trip to Washington, D.C. did not comply with the District's obligations under IDEA.
  
  
• An administrative decision by NJDOE finding that the East Orange School District violated the rights of students with disabilities in foster care by failing to comply with procedures for the appointment of surrogate parents to make educational decisions for such children and that the District failed to provide timely and adequate educational services when suspending children with disabilities.
  
  
• An administrative law judge decision reversing the summary dismissal of a student with a disability from a private school accepting students placed by their public school districts. Administrative law judge held that the private school was required to provide the same rights and protections to a student placed there by his public school district, as he would receive if educated in the public school district.
  
  
• A successful challenge to the West New York School District's failure to provide appropriate transition planning services, required by IDEA, to a student with severe disabilities.
  
  
• Negotiation of a comprehensive settlement agreement at the Office of Administrative Law on behalf of the parent of a student with autism, whom ELC represented in challenging the District's failure to offer specialized programming for students with autism.
  
  
• A federal district court decision denying the State of New Jersey's Motion to Dismiss a special education case on sovereign immunity grounds, in which ELC represented 13 local and national civil rights and educational advocacy organizations participating as amicus curiae.

School Admissions/Residency

• Obtained favorable decision from the Commissioner of Education applying liberal interpretation to school residency statute, N.J.S.A. 18A:38-1, to grant domicile status to a student who resided with his great aunt, even during period before great aunt obtained legal custody.
  
  
• Obtained favorable decision from the Commissioner of Education ordering the West Orange Board of Education to discontinue its practice of requiring an applicant for admission to obtain a Certificate of Inhabitancy (CI) from the municipal housing inspector as a condition of enrollment. The Commissioner also invalidated the Board's practice of denying admission based on incomplete transcripts and immunizations.
  
  
• Promulgation by the State Board of Education of regulations governing students' entitlement to attend public schools based on domicile and residency in response to SRP litigation and testimony.

Student Discipline

• Obtained emergent relief ruling form the State Board of Education requiring a student's placement in an alternative education program pending determination of his expulsion appeal. In this ongoing challenge, ELC is arguing that the student's expulsion without alternative education by Bergenfield Board of Education violates his constitutional rights under the Education and Equal Protection Clauses of the New Jersey Constitution and is also arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.
  
  
• Successfully challenged expulsion and gained reinstatement of a fifteen year old student who was expelled under Collingswood School District's policy of zero tolerance for bomb threats. The student in question, who had no history of disruptive or dangerous conduct in any setting, had changed a computer shutdown screen to read, "If you turn me off I will blow up."
  
  
• Obtained favorable settlement for a fifteen-year-old student who had been expelled under Rahway School District's policy of zero tolerance for weapons. The students was expelled for possession of a sixteen inch miniature baseball bat, which had made earlier that day in his shop class, with his shop teacher's approval. Under the terms of the settlement, the board of education agreed to reinstate the student, expunge the expulsion from his record, and provide compensatory education.
  
  
• Negotiated settlement with the East Orange Board of Education requiring a revision to key provisions of its student discipline policy. Under the settlement, the East Orange Board of Education is required to: (1) provide alternative education to all students suspended long-term and awaiting a formal disciplinary hearing before the Board; (2) schedule all formal disciplinary hearings before the Board within 21 days of the student's removal from school: and (3) provide students with a list of Board witnesses and a summary of witness' testimony at least five days prior to the Board hearing.
  
  
• Successfully challenged the indefinite suspension of a five-year-old student with severe expressive and receptive language delays for hitting another kindergartner. Although and Administrative Law Judge upheld the student's exclusion by the South Orange and Maplewood School District, ELC obtained the student's reinstatement to school, with additional services and assessments, through a settlement reached on appeal to the United States District Court