Welcome to The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC

Juvenile law governs people under the age of 18 charged with an offense that would be a crime if committed by a person over the age of 18. It allows for jurisdiction of the youth even if they turn 18 before the case proceedings begin and allows for continued resolution and treatment until the age of 21. Most importantly, Juvenile Court offers children and parents or guardians access to treatment and resources they may need in order to prevent future criminal acts.

At The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC, we represent juvenile cases at all stages, including but not limited to:

Resolving a case in Juvenile Court: Delinquency Cases, Child in Need of Assistance, Juvenile Court adjudication and disposition
Arrest
Police Questioning
Police Custody and Detention
Felonies and misdemeanors
Diversion to Rehabilitation
DJJ intake hearings/ waiver and reverse waiver hearings
Underage drinking
Neglect/Abuse
Truancy
Traffic Offenses such as DWI, DUI

Welcome to The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC

The mission of the Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC is to provide clients with high quality legal representation that is tailored to meet individual needs and is cost effective.

Practicing throughout the state of Maryland, including Montgomery, Prince Georges, Howard, and Anne Arundel counties, the Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC quickly identifies the client’s legal needs, provides practical and thoughtful legal advice, and develops an effective course of action. We provide an environment that is respectful and caring while aggressively seeking favorable resolution to the client’s situation. Knowledgeable, committed, and assertive, The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC will diligently advocate for the client’s rights, specifically in the following areas:

Family Law	Education Law	Juvenile Law
Criminal Law	Wills, Trusts and Estates	Elder Law

We invite you to contact the Office of Paul H. Kurth at 301-775-1617 or online by going to the "contact us" page to schedule a consulation.

Welcome to The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC

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Welcome to The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC

Elder Law is a specialized field of law that deals with the issues faced by the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, the elderly. This area of law combines elements of Estate Planning, Wills and Trusts, Conservatorship (also called Guardianship), Health Care Planning, Medicare/Medicaid Planning, and Elder Rights.

Seniors are more active and live longer than ever before, but they have a new set of legal concerns that have rarely been addressed by earlier generations. Older people have always needed Wills and Estate Planning to pass their assets to their beneficiaries. Now that they are living longer, there are more issues about their future care that have to be included in Estate Planning, such as plans for housing, future medical care, and what to do if the person should become incapacitated. One of the most important questions that is being raised is how to provide long-term housing, with possibly increasing levels of care, as the seniors age. This, in turn, is giving rise to a whole new industry of senior living facilities and raising many legal questions about contract rights and the power of facilities to discharge residents. As continuing care becomes more and more expensive, seniors are also in need on information about long-term care insurance and government benefits.

Welcome to The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC

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Welcome to The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC

Contact The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC if you need quality representation in any of the following Family Law matters:

Domestic Violence
Premarital/Prenuptial Agreements
Domestic Partnership Agreements
Adoption
Divorce
Spousal Support/Alimony
Child Custody
Child Support
Visitation Rights

Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence is a violent confrontation between family or household members involving physical harm, sexual assault, or fear of physical harm. Family or household members include spouses / former spouses, those in (or formerly in) a dating relationship, adults related by blood or marriage, and those who have a biological or legal parent-child relationship.

The batterer uses acts of violence and a series of behaviors, including intimidation, threats, psychological abuse, and isolation to coerce and to control the other person. The violence may not happen often, but may remain a hidden and constant terrorizing factor. Domestic violence is not only physical and sexual violence but also psychological. Psychological violence means intense and repetitive degradation, creating isolation, and controlling the actions or behaviors of the spouse through intimidation or manipulation to the detriment of the individual.

Domestic violence destroys the home. No one deserves to be abused. The responsibility for the violence belongs to the abuser. It is not the victim's fault!

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Premarital/Prenuptial Agreements

A prenuptial agreement ("prenup" for short) is a written contract created by two people before they are married. A prenup typically lists all of the property each person owns (as well as any debts) and specifies what each person's property rights will be after the marriage.

Who Needs a Prenuptial Agreement?

Contrary to popular opinion, prenups are not just for the rich. While prenups are often used to protect the assets of a wealthy fiancé, couples of more modest means are increasingly turning to them for their own purposes. Here are some reasons that some people want a prenup:

Pass separate property to children from prior marriages. A marrying couple with children from prior marriages may use a prenup to spell out what will happen to their property when they die, so that they can pass on separate property to their children and still provide for each other, if necessary. Without a prenup, a surviving spouse might have the right to claim a large portion of the other spouse's property, leaving much less for the kids.

Clarify financial rights. Couples with or without children, wealthy or not, may simply want to clarify their financial rights and responsibilities during marriage.

Avoid arguments in case of divorce. Or they may want to avoid potential arguments if they ever divorce, by specifying in advance how their property will be divided, and whether or not either spouse will receive alimomy.

Get protection from debts. Prenups can also be used to protect spouses from each other's debts.

A prenuptial agreement may address other issues as well.

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Domestic Partnership Agreements

A domestic partner agreement can be used by all unmarried couples, whether of the opposite or same sex. It is a written contract between you and your partner that is primarily used to address the sharing of income, expenses, and property. It supports your ownership rights and clarifies your intentions for the distribution of your property if you die or your relationship ends. Although it needn't address concerns that are covered by other legal instruments (such as deeds of title, wills, living trusts, durable powers of attorney for health care and finances, parental rights documents, and living wills or Declarations of Desire), it can provide a valuable supporting document for them. You can also use a domestic partner agreement to identify responsibility for nonfinancial matters (e.g., who will handle household duties).

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Adoption

Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another who is not kin and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents. Unlike guardianship or other systems designed for the care of the young, adoption is intended to effect a permanent change in status and as such requires societal recognition through legal sanction.

Forms of adoption

Adoption practices can be divided into two forms: 1) Open and 2) Closed.

Open adoption allows identifying information to be communicated between adoptive and biological parents and, perhaps, interaction between kin and the adopted person.

The practice of closed adoption seals all identifying information, maintaining it as secret and barring disclosure of the adoptive parents', biological kins', and adoptees' identities. Nevertheless, closed adoption, may allow the transmittal of non-identifying information such as medical history and religious and ethnic background.

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Divorce

Limited Divorce

Limited Divorce under Maryland Law may be granted under certain
circumstances. The grounds for Limited Divorce are:

1. Cruelty of treatment of the complaining party or of a minor child of the complaining party;

2. Excessively vicious conduct to the complaining party or to a minor child of the complaining pary;

3. Desertion;

4. Voluntary separation, if the parties are living separate and apart without cohabitation, and there is no reasonable hope of a reconciliation.

The granting of a Limited Divorce authorizes a spouse to live separate and apart from the other party and to obtain orders relating to certain financial and child custody issues. The parties still remain as husband and wife, and there is no severance of the marital bonds.

Absolute Divorce

An absolute divorce dissolves the marriage. Once a judgment of absolute divorce is entered, the parties are free to remarry.

After an absolute divorce, one party can no longer inherit property from the other, and any property owned by them jointly as husband and wife automatically becomes property held in common (each owns one-half).

In addition, the judgment may provide for sole or joint custody of the children, payment of alimony and child support, and the disposition of personal property. The court may also make an equitable distribution of all the parties’ assets, including ordering the sale of jointly held property and the dividing the proceeds. See Chapter Eight, Division of Property.

Finally, a spouse may ask the court to order that he or she resume their birth name. These requests are almost always granted.

Grounds for an Absolute Divorce

To obtain an absolute divorce, a spouse must first prove that at least one ground for absolute divorce exists. There are eight grounds for absolute divorce in Maryland. The following is a brief description of each ground.

Adultery

Adultery is voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a person other than the offender’s spouse. It is a fault ground for divorce, which means that there is no waiting period for getting a divorce. If a party pleads and proves adultery, the divorce will be granted immediately.

To prove adultery, one need not show actual intercourse. Evidence that the offending spouse had the disposition and opportunity for extra-marital intercourse will suffice. Additionally, if one spouse has a child and the other spouse is not the natural parent of that child, this is usually sufficient to sustain a claim of adultery.

An attorney can determine whether your facts meet the legal requirements for proving adultery. Evidence must include the testimony of a corroborating third party. It is not sufficient for the spouse committing adultery to simply admit the adultery.

Adultery may be a factor in determining the right to alimony. It may also be a factor in awarding custody of the children, but only if the court determines that the adulterous behavior had a detrimental effect on the children.

Desertion

As in the limited divorce, desertion may be actual or constructive. In actual desertion, the deserting spouse leaves the home without cause. In constructive desertion, the person who leaves is justified and is therefore regarded as the deserted spouse.

To establish actual desertion, the spouse seeking the divorce must prove the following:

The deserting spouse intended to terminate the marriage relation;
Cohabitation has ended;
The deserter’s leaving was unjustified;
The parties are beyond any reasonable hope of reconciliation;
The deserted spouse did not consent to the desertion; and,
The desertion has continued uninterrupted for 12 months.

Constructive desertion also requires proof of the above elements. The justification for constructive desertion that arises most frequently closely resembles cruelty. If the cruelty or intolerable conduct by one spouse causes the other spouse to leave the home, the spouse remaining in the home could be adjudged to have constructively deserted the spouse who leaves.

In cases involving constructive desertion, the court will take into account the following factors:

The nature and duration of the misconduct;
The length of time the deserting spouse endured the misconduct; and
What attempts the deserting spouse made to try to save the marriage.

Voluntary Separation

In Maryland, an absolute divorce on the ground of voluntary separation may be obtained by either party 12 months after the parties agree to separate and then live separate and apart in separate homes without sexual intimacy. To get a divorce on this ground, there must be a mutual agreement, either oral or written, to separate, with a mutual intent to terminate the marriage relationship. In addition, the marriage must be beyond any reasonable hope of reconciliation.

As a basis for voluntary separation, the parties may draft a separation agreement that includes a statement of their mutual desire to separate. Maryland law does not require a written separation agreement or legal separation in order to divorce.

Two-Year Separation

This ground for divorce requires that the couple have lived apart in separate homes without sexual intimacy continuously for two years. No agreement to separate is necessary, and neither party needs to prove or claim “fault”. The party seeking the divorce only has to show that there has been no cohabitation between the parties for at least two years.

Cruelty of Treatment

Generally, cruelty is limited to conduct which threatens or inflicts bodily harm. Mental cruelty may also be recognized as a form of vicious conduct, but it usually must be coupled with other abuse or misconduct which endangers the life, person or health of the spouse or causes reasonable apprehension of bodily harm.

Like the other fault grounds, cruelty of treatment may be a factor in awarding alimony or custody. In addition, there is no waiting period, so a party may file for divorce immediately.

Excessively Vicious Conduct

Excessively vicious conduct is a term used to describe extreme acts of domestic violence. This ground usually applies in a case where there has been a pattern of or on-going abuse. However, one incident of violence may be sufficient, if it is severe.

Like the other fault grounds, excessively vicious conduct may be a factor in awarding alimony or custody. In addition, there is no waiting period, so a party may file for divorce immediately.

Conviction of a Crime

A jail sentence of over three years or an indeterminate sentence imposed on the spouse and imprisonment for 12 months following criminal conviction, is a ground for divorce.

Insanity

Permanent and incurable insanity is a ground for divorce. For insanity to be considered permanently incurable, a person must have been confined in a mental institution, hospital, or other institution for at least three years, and at least two physicians competent in psychiatry must testify that the insanity is permanently incurable.

The above information is meant to be only an introduction to the grounds for divorce provided for by Maryland law. If you are considering a divorce, contact The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC and we will help you decide which grounds fit your particular situation.

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Spousal Support/Alimony

Alimony in Marital Settlement Agreements

Parties to a separation, limited divorce or absolute divorce may agree to pay alimony. The parties are free to agree to any amount. This agreement can be incorporated into a divorce decree. Marital Agreements.

Depending on the language of the agreement, the amount of alimony can be modified by the court or be fixed and unchangeable. In order for a provision like alimony to be fixed and not modifiable by the court, the agreement must specifically state that the provision is not subject to modification by the court. If the agreement does not contain such a statement, the award of alimony by the court will be modifiable by the court should the income or circumstances of either party change significantly.

Alimony Decided by a Court

In the absence of an agreement, the court will determine alimony. The right to alimony is not contingent upon divorce.

During litigation, prior to the divorce, the court may award temporary alimony or alimony pendente lite. To receive temporary alimony, a party must show financial need and the ability of the other party to pay. The court has discretion in determining the amount.

Generally, the alimony award is made at the time of the divorce. If the right to receive alimony is reserved at the time of the divorce, the court may later set the amount. If either party obtains a valid divorce without alimony in another state, a Maryland court may determine the amount.

Whether and in what amount a court will award alimony depends on a variety of factors. These factors include the following:

The ability of the party seeking alimony to be wholly or partially self-supporting;
The time deemed necessary by the court for the party seeking alimony to gain sufficient education or training to enable that party to find suitable employment;
The standard of living of the parties established during the marriage;
The duration of the marriage;
The contributions, monetary and non-monetary, of each party to the well-being of the family;
The facts and circumstances leading to the estrangement of the parties and the dissolution of the marriage;
Fault is not an absolute bar to alimony.
It is only one factor to be considered.
Therefore, the spouse seeking alimony can recover even if they are the party at fault if other factors support receipt.
The age and physical and mental condition of each party.
The ability of the party from whom alimony is sought to meet his or her needs while meeting those of the party seeking alimony;
Any agreement between the parties;
The financial needs and resources of both parties, including:
All income and assets, including non-income producing property;
Any marital property award;
The nature and amount of the financial obligations of each party; and,
The respective rights of the parties to receive retirement benefits; and,
Such other factors as the court deems it necessary or appropriate to consider in order to arrive at a fair and equitable award of alimony.

The purpose of alimony is to provide an opportunity for the recipient spouse to become self-supporting. If alimony is awarded, it is usually “rehabilitative alimony” for a certain period of time to allow a dependent spouse to become self-supporting.

The court may award alimony for an indefinite period of time under two conditions. First, if a dependent spouse cannot become self-supporting due to mental or physical disability. Second, even if a dependent spouse becomes self-supporting there remains an “unconscionable disparity” between the spouses’ income.

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Child Custody

Types of Custody

Temporary Custody

"De facto" (means "in fact") custody refers to who actually has custody of the child at this time. This can be different from "court ordered custody". In order to formalize custody before you begin litigation, you will need to file for temporary custody. Temporary custody will be based on the "best interests" of the child standard. It is not an "initial" award of custody. Instead it is temporary custody while you wait for the court to hold a hearing. In order to be awarded temporary custody you must file a request for hearing and an Order for Temporary Custody and Support along with your Complaint for Custody or Divorce.

Sole Custody

Custody is made up of: legal custody and physical custody. A person with legal custody has the right to make long range plans and decisions for the education, religious training, discipline, non-emergency medical care and other matters of major significance concerning the child's welfare. A person with physical custody has the child living primarily with them and they have the right to make decisions as to the child's everyday needs. Sole Custody is when both legal and physical custody are given to one parent. The child has only one primary residence.

Split Custody

Split custody is easiest to describe in a situation where there are two children and each parent obtains full physical custody over one child. Some of the considerations that may bring about this result are age of the children and child preference.

Joint Custody

Joint Custody is actually broken down into three categories: Joint Legal, Shared Physical, and Combination.

Joint Legal custody is where the parents share care and control of the upbringing of the child, but the child has only one primary residence.
In Shared Physical Custody the child has two residences, spending at least 35% of their time with the other parent.
Additionally, you can make your own special joint custody agreement that is any combination of Shared Physical and Joint Legal Custody. One example of this is when there is one residence for the child and the parents live with the child there on a rotating basis.

The court looks very closely at Joint Custody agreements. The most important factor to Joint Legal Custody to Shared Physical Custody is the ability of the parents to talk about and reach joint decisions that affect the child's welfare. If you are constantly fighting over what religion or what school, the court may strike down your agreement.

Other factors include:

willingness to share custody;
fitness;
child's relationships with parents;
child's preference;
ability to stabilize child's school and social life;
closeness to parent's homes (primarily a factor during the school year) ;
employment considerations (e.g. long hours, extensive travel, etc.);
age and number of children;
financial status;
benefit to parent.

The Best Interests of the Child Standard
Regardless of any agreement you may have reached, the courts will look at custody to determine the "best interests" of the child. They look at several factors. It is important to remember that no one factor is more important than any other. The following list is some, but not all, of the factors, that courts will consider.

Primary Care Giver - Who is the person who takes care of the child? Who feeds the child, shops for their clothes, gets them up for school, bathes them, and arranges day care? Who does the child turn to when they get hurt?
Fitness - What are the psychological and physical capacities of the parties seeking custody? The court may also consider evidence of abuse by a party against the other parent, the party's spouse, or any child residing within the party's household (including another child).
Character and Reputation
Agreements - Is there a custody agreement already in place?
Ability to Maintain Family Relationships - Who will be able to keep the child's family most intact? Who is going to let the child speak with their ex-mother-in-law, for example? Who will not penalize the child for any adverse action on the part of the other parent.
Child Preference - The decision of the court may be considered reversible error if they won't hear the child's preference. However, the court has the discretion to interview the child out of the parents' presence. A child as young as 5 or 6 years of age may be heard. Though it is rare, the court will hear from a child under 7 years.The child's ability to tell the truth from fiction and maturity will be the guideline for whether a child may be heard. A child of 10 or 12 years of age is certainly entitled to have their opinions heard and given weight in legal proceedings about custody. Additionally, the court has the power to appoint an attorney for the child in contested cases.
Material Opportunity - Which parent has the financial resources to give the child more things?
Age, Health and Gender of Child
Residences of Parents and Opportunity for Visitation - How close do the parents live to each other? How close do they live to members of the child's extended family? Which parent lives closest to the child's school and social circle?
Length of Separation- how long has the parent been separated from the child?
Any Prior Abandonment or Surrender of Custody - Is there a history of one parent walking out and leaving the other parent to cope with the child and the home? Which parent left when you last broke up?
Religious Views - These will be important in the court's decision only if you can show that religious views affect the physical or emotional well being of the child.
Disability - In 2009, The General Assembly passed a bill making explicitly limiting the relevance of a party's disability in a custody proceeding to the extent that the disability affects the best interest of the child. HB 689. (Effective 10/01/09)

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Child Support

An unfortunate fact of economic life is that a family divided cannot live as cheaply as if the family stayed together. After a divorce or separation of a family, the living standard of the entire family is often lowered.

Both parents have a legal duty to support their child based to their ability to provide that support.

Since 1990, Maryland has had child support guidelines that provide a formula for calculating child support. These guidelines are applied unless someone can show that the guidelines would be unjust and inappropriate in a particular case. The Child Support Calculator can be used to calculate your child support obligation.

Child Support Guidelines

In 1990, the Maryland General Assembly passed a law requiring the courts to use Child Support Guidelines in all child support cases. The Guideline's amount is the correct amount. However, you can argue that the Guidelines amounts are wrong. First you must complete the Guidelines and show the amount. Then you can then explain your concerns in the comments section of the Guidelines.

Parents cannot agree to not support their children. The General Assembly decided that "the law and policy of this State is that the child's best interest is of paramount importance and cannot be altered by the parties. A parent has a legal obligation to provide support for the child [in proportion to their gross earnings]."

Modification of Child Support
Child support orders cannot be changed on a whim or because a court thinks that "it is time." It must be based on evidence proving that there is good reason to make the change. This usually requires that a person who wants to make the change show a changed circumstance. You must show that the facts that existed when the last order was entered have changed. (In the many years a child support order is in place, the parent's circumstances may change many times.) For example, in Maryland, if one parent's income has changed (either gone up or down) by at least 25%, this is considered a big enough change to require a change in the support order. You can request a modification for a lesser change in income, but will not necessarily be guaranteed a change in the support order.

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Visitation Rights

Visitation is the part of the court order that defines when, how and where the non-custodial parent may have contact with the child. Visitation is limited by the fact that legal custody belongs to the other parent. This means that your visitation does not give you the authority to conflict with the long range decisions and policies of the parent with legal custody. For example, if the parent with legal custody has decided to raise the child in the Jewish tradition, the parent with visitation rights may not take the child to be baptized in a Catholic church.

Who can be awarded visitation? Obviously a biological parent can be awarded visitation. Additionally, grandparents (even when the parents weren't married or are not currently divorced) and step-parents may be awarded visitation rights. While there are no reported cases of brothers or sisters being given visitation, a strong argument could be made that it would be in the best interest of the child.

When can visitation be denied? The court has the power to deny visitation. Normally the court will only stop visitation for a certain time or until a certain task is performed.

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Welcome to The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC

Maryland Child Support Guidelines

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Please feel free to Contact The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC for your legal needs by phone or by filling in the information below.

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Welcome to The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC

Education Law refers to laws that govern federal and state education programs, including the administartion and operation of educational institutions, instructional methods, programs, and materials. Education law also encompasses legal matters relating to school faculty and staff, students, school discipline, special education, and discrimination.

Contact The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth if you or your child requires assistance in any of the following Education Law issues:

Special Education Advocacy
Section 504 Advocacy
School Discipline

Special Education Advocacy

Under the federal law called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and corresponding state law, a child with a disability, which affects his or her learning has a right to a free and appropriate public education. A child is entitled to a program, which is designed to meet his or her individual learning needs. This includes specially designed classroom instruction and related services needed by the child to benefit from the education program.

Identification

A child becomes eligible for special education services when he or she is identified as disabled by the school’s Individual Education Program (IEP) team.

A parent or guardian is a member of the IEP team and has the right to participate in the IEP meetings about the child. Other members of the IEP team include a special education teacher; a regular education teacher; a school official who knows about the special education system and the general curriculum; and school personnel who can interpret evaluation results. The student may be a member of the IEP team if it is appropriate. Also, the parent may bring anyone else to the meeting, who would be helpful, such as a family friend, an advocate or other professionals who know the child.

The IEP team must complete the evaluation process, including the initial meeting, completion of the assessments, within 90 days of receiving the written request for an evaluation.

Screening: If a parent or guardian believes that his or her child may need special education services, the parent or guardian should make a request for an evaluation in writing and send it to the principal of the child’s school.

The IEP team will meet to determine if additional assessments are needed and decide whether the child is eligible for special education services. If the IEP team suspects that the child may have a disability and needs special education, the IEP team will order additional assessments after obtaining permission from the parent or guardian.

Assessments: During the assessment stage, the tests recommended by the IEP team are given to the child. School professionals, such as a psychologist, educator, speech pathologist, and physical or occupational therapists assess the child. The types of assessments that should be performed depend on the child’s suspected disability. Assessments determine the child’s disability and what kind of educational services he or she needs as a result of the disability. The school system is responsible for scheduling and paying for all the assessments it has recommended.

Review of the Assessments: Once the assessments are completed, the IEP team must meet to review the assessment results and determine whether the child qualifies for special education services.

Individual Education Plan Development

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Individual Education Plan Implementation

Individual Education Plan Review

Within 30 days after the IEP team meets to review the assessments and determines that a student needs special education services, the IEP team meets again to develop the IEP. The IEP is a document, which sets the plan of services, and accommodations that the child will receive through the school system.

For a child who is already receiving special education services, the IEP team must meet at least once a year to review the child’s progress and revise the IEP’s accordingly.

The IEP has many requirements. For example, the IEP should describe a child’s disability, strengths, and needs and the present levels of educational performance. In addition, the IEP should set annual goals for the child and short-term objectives, all of which must be related to enabling a child to be involved in the general curriculum.

The IEP must also include any of the following that the child may need: related services, such as occupational or physical therapy, or transportation, assistive technology devices or services; behavior strategies; extended school year services, Braille; language and communication services; and/or transition services.

Once the IEP is developed, it must be implemented as soon as possible and must be in effect at the beginning of the school year.

Placement

A “placement” refers to the actual class and school a child attends in order to receive his or her special educational services. The IEP team determines the placement after the IEP document has been developed.

The law requires that a child receive his or her special education services in the “least restrictive environment.” This means that an eligible child must receive special education services with non-disabled children as much as possible and preferably in the neighborhood school. This is often referred to as “inclusion.” The school system must provide extra aid or services if it would allow a child to participate in a less restrictive environment.

What Can a Parent or Guardian Do if an Agreement Cannot be Reached with the School System?

There are times when a parent or guardian may not agree with the evaluation, IEP or placement offered for his or her child. If a parent or guardian disagrees with the school system at any stage of the process, he or she has the right to request mediation or a due process hearing.

Mediation is a voluntary process in which a trained mediator tries to help the family and the school system reach an agreement. If a parent requests mediation and due process at the same time, the mediation must be held within 20 days from the date of the request.

A due process hearing is a formal way to resolve a dispute between the parent and the school system. The hearing is set up by the Office of Administrative Hearings and takes place before an administrative law judge. A parent can request a dues process hearing by submitting a request in writing to the school system. The hearing must be held within 45 days of the date the school system receives the request.

Parents have the right to bring an attorney or advocate to represent them at the hearing. There are important rules regarding due process hearings, which families should be aware of before requesting a hearing. For example, parents and school official must exchange a list of witnesses (including potential witnesses) and copies of all documents they intend to use at the hearing at least 5 business days prior to the hearing. If a party does not comply with this rule, the administrative law judge could exclude that party’s evidence.

If a parent believes that his or her child is not getting the services listed on the IEP, or if the school system does not comply with the timelines or other procedures, the parent can file a complaint with the Maryland State Department of Education. Under federal law, the state has 60 days to investigate the complaint and issue a decision.

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Section 504 Advocacy

Some children with disabilities may not qualify for special education services under the IDEA, but may still need specific adaptation to their educational program to allow them to participate fully in their classes. For example, a child who uses a wheelchair may not need special education services but may need some accommodations to access the school building. The federal law that applies to these children is referred to as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Children with disabilities who need accommodations and services under Section 504 are entitled to a Section 504 Plan. This Plan sets forth the accommodations and services that the student will receive from the school system. As with the IEP, the Section 504 Plan should be reviewed and revised regularly to ensure that the child’s needs are being met.

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School Discipline

Suspension

Expulsion

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Welcome to The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC

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Welcome to The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC

Contact The Law Office of Paul H. Kurth, LLC if you need quality representation in any of the following Areas of Practice:

Family Law	Education Law
Juvenile Law	Criminal Law
Wills, Trusts and Estates	Elder Law