Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits school districts from discriminating against handicapped students. School districts are responsible for resolving complaints of handicap discrimination. A Director of Special Services contacted Durant, Nichols to ask how a discrimination complaint under Section 504 should be handled.

Durant, Nichols developed a written Section 504 Plan for the school district. The Plan brought the school district into compliance with Section 504 by providing for written notification to parents of Section 504 rights, establishing a written grievance procedure for handling Section 504 discrimination complaints, designating a school administrator as the Section 504 coordinator and establishing procedures for requesting and conducting an impartial hearing before a Section 504 hearing officer.

II. Handling Cases Before the Courts

The firm was able to obtain a decision from the Connecticut Supreme Court that allowed a board of education to use a dissenting opinion's findings of fact as the basis to successfully terminate a teacher, notwithstanding that the majority arbitration opinion found no basis to terminate. The firm also won a declaratory ruling stating that a union may not rely on the mere existence of a collective bargaining agreement to refuse a board of education offer to bargain on an issue not specifically addressed in the agreement.

III. Negotiation & Arbitration

In negotiations, our firm has successfully negotiated among the highest premium cost share contribution rates and longest teacher work years in the state. In interest arbitration, the firm won an interest arbitration ruling that allowed a municipal employer that had not made any collective bargaining proposals in two years of negotiations to still make said proposals after the on-set of interest arbitration, but before the first arbitration hearing.

IV. Teacher Termination