SCHOOL OF LAW NEWS
LAW STUDENTS ADVOCATE FOR AND PROTECT RIGHTS OF SPECIAL EDUCATION STUDENTS
A St. Paul elementary school student will receive appropriate special education services as a result of the advocacy work of students in St. Thomas Law’s Special Education Legal Clinic. In response to an administrative complaint filed by 3L Kari Thoreson, an advanced student practitioner in the clinic, and Professor Andrea Jepsen ’06 J.D., on January 12, 2023, the Minnesota Department of Education issued a decision that found that St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS) did not follow federal and state special education laws and that the child was eligible for compensatory educational services to address the educational failures. Law students working in the Special Education Legal Clinic began representing the child in the spring of 2022 through a partnership the clinic has with
St. Peter Claver Catholic School, where the student was attending school. Under Minnesota law, students who attend a private school and qualify for special education services receive them from the public school district in which the private school is located, in this instance St. Paul Public Schools. “Our clinic students were essential to ensuring that this student will now receive the services they are entitled to, services that are calculated to result in educational progress,” Jepsen, who co-leads the clinic with Associate Dean Elizabeth Schiltz, said. “I’m very happy for the student and the student’s family and overjoyed to see the hard work of our law students changing the course of a child’s education.”
Andrea Jepsen ‘06 J.D. (pictured left), co-director of the Special Education Legal Clinic, and 3L Kari Thoreson (right).
Page 8 St. Thomas Lawyer
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