Educational Discrimination

Last updated on August 21, 2025

There are many excellent education rights attorneys in the State of New Jersey who obtain Individualized Education Plans (IEP) for students. This is often an hourly matter for the family and can involve significant attorneys’ fees because school boards and districts often fight to conserve their resources and to give the minimal IEP they can get away with giving.

Sometimes families can’t afford lawyers and they have to take whatever they can get at the IEP table, but even then the schools don’t always follow the plan they put in place. Sometimes this is simply due to ineptitude or laziness, but sometimes the schools are counting on the fact that the family might not have the resources to hire an hourly education rights attorney to fight them on failure to provide a proper IEP.

Sometimes schools fail to protect students from harassment, intimidation or abuse on the basis of race, sex, gender, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, perceived sexual orientation, disability, perceived disability, gender identity, gender expression, religion or creed.

All of these types of discrimination are illegal under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and under the New Jersey State Anti-Bullying Law. To say that the New Jersey school harassment and New Jersey school discrimination attorneys at Costello & Silverman, have been at the very point of the spear in protecting students from discrimination in schools would be to understate our leadership in this regard. We are known throughout the state and throughout the region for being out in front of this developing social and legal issue, protecting students from discrimination in all forms in schools.

Education And School Legal Matters Our Attorneys Help Resolve

• Bullying And Harassment In Schools
• Civil Rights Violations And Discrimination
• Communicating With Schools On Behalf Of Your Child
• General Civil Rights Litigation In Schools
• Reasonable Accommodation In Schools
• School Bullying

If a school has already agreed to or has had enforced upon it an IEP and it is not following the plan, don’t worry about being unable to hire an education rights attorney, because we know how to use the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination to force the school to obey the “reasonable accommodation” that the IEP represents. If the school is permitting your child to be harassed, bullied or intimidated, even cyber-bullied off school grounds on the basis of his or her race, gender, sex, ethnicity, national origin, disability, perceived disability, sexual orientation, perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, we know how to help.

Thankfully, New Jersey is a progressive state, and we have an excellent civil rights law that reaches into the schools. Our attorneys know how to use that law in order to help, and we’ve recovered millions of dollars for families and students who have been discriminated against in schools.

What Evidence Is Needed To Prove Educational Discrimination In New Jersey?

If your child is being treated unfairly in school, you do not need a perfect trail of documents, but you do need something that helps you show a pattern. Schools will always try to deny or minimize wrongdoing. We know how to make them respond.

Start holding on to:

• Emails or messages sent to teachers, counselors or administrators
• Notes from meetings or calls where concerns were dismissed
• Copies of IEPs, 504 plans or other education-related evaluations
• Disciplinary letters, suspension notices or sudden service removals
• Screenshots of bullying, harassment or retaliation (including social media)
• Report cards, behavioral reports or records of sudden grade drops

Do not worry if you are unsure what is considered “enough.” We know how to demand school records, speak to witnesses and connect the dots. It is our job to make that clear under the school discrimination rights and discrimination in schools laws.

What Should You Do After The School Retaliates Against Your Child Or Family After Complaining?

Some families hesitate to speak out because they fear the school will take it out on their child. Sadly, we have seen it happen. Suddenly, a student is being written up more often, excluded from activities or losing services they previously received. That is retaliation, and it is against the law.

If your family is being punished for speaking up:

• We move fast to stop the retaliation
• We get the school’s actions on record immediately
• We push back hard under New Jersey’s civil rights laws

This is not just about protecting your child; it is about ensuring the school does not do this to anyone else.

What Can You Recover In A School Discrimination Lawsuit?

Stopping the abuse is the first goal. But under the educational discrimination law, your family may also be eligible for:

• Compensation for emotional harm
• Therapy or counseling expenses
• Lost educational services or tutoring
• Relocation costs if you had to move schools
• Other damages tied to student rights violations

We have seen what these cases do to families. Do not settle for just an apology.

Please call Costello & Silverman today at 866-944-3371(toll-free) or contact us online to arrange a confidential consultation.