Desiree Serrano
Partner | Los Angeles
dserrano@lozanosmith.com
Tel: 213.929.1066
Fax: 213.929.1077
Vcard
Bio
Overview
Desiree Serrano is a Partner in Lozano Smith's Los Angeles office. Her practice focuses on the student, labor & employment and government relations aspects of education law. Ms. Serrano has extensive experience as general legal counsel for school districts. She presents trainings on a number of topics to school employees such as sexual harassment, discipline, cyberbullying, student searches, transgender student rights, contract drafting, Brown Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act.She provides legal advice to administrators on personnel matters such as discipline, layoffs, discrimination complaints, disability accommodations, and leaves, in addition to preparing responses to DFEH and EEOC complaints and negotiating settlement agreements. She also has substantial experience with student issues including records, discipline, searches and constitutional issues.
Additional Experience
While in Law School, Ms. Serrano worked as a Law Clerk for San Diego Unified School District, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles. She was also a Mediation Intern for the National Conflict Resolution Center and a Land Use Intern for the City of San Diego.Professional Affiliations
Ms. Serrano is a member of the California Bar and involved with the California Council of School Attorneys.Education
Ms. Serrano received her Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego School of Law. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Law and Society, and minored in Education and Applied Psychology, from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Ms. Serrano has received certification through ATIXA as a participant in Level 1 and Level 3 ATIXA Civil Rights Investigator Trainings.U.S. Supreme Court Clarifies the Standard for "True Threats"
August 2023Number 32In Counterman v. Colorado (June 27, 2023, No. 22-138) 600 U.S. __, the United States Supreme Court analyzed the First Amendment’s free speech protections in the context of “true threats.” While previous case law had established that true threats are not protected speech (and therefore may be restricted), the Supreme Court has now clarified that for a statement to be considered a true threat and thus unprotected speech, the speaker must have had &ldq...
Ninth Circuit Talks Graduation and First Amendment Rights
January 2023Number 6In a recent opinion, Waln v. Dysart School District (9th Cir. 2022, Nos. 21-15737) __F.4th __ [2022 WL 17544355], the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals analyzed a school district policy that prohibited students from decorating their graduation caps. The Court determined that the student plaintiff had plausibly alleged that the school district policy was applied selectively, and thus the student had stated a viable claim for a violation of the First Amendme...
New Law Mandates Schools to Annually Inform Parents of Safe Storage of Firearms and Expands Reporting of Middle School and High School Threats to Law Enforcement
August 2022Number 41On July 21, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 906, creating new obligations for local educational agencies (LEAs) designed to prevent firearm-related incidents at schools and addressing threats made by students in middle schools and high schools. This bill takes effect January 1, 2023.Safe Storage of Firearms Information RequiredBeginning with the 2023-24 school year, SB 906 will require LEAs to include information in their annual notification to pa...
New Legislation Will Impact Student Health
November 2021Number 37Three new bills signed by Governor Newsom impact student health including requiring the development of type 1 diabetes information to be made available to parents or guardians, making menstrual products more accessible in public school restrooms, and informing students on the best practices for returning to exercise and physical activity after displaying symptoms of or testing positive for COVID-19.Senate Bill 97 – Pupil Health: Type 1 Diabetes Information: Parent ...
School Wellness Policies Must be Revised for the 2017-18 School Year
July 2017 Number 35 Local educational agencies (LEAs) that participate in the national school lunch and school breakfast programs must update their school wellness policies to include new requirements for the 2017-18 school year. The requirements were included in regulations finalized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service in 2016. LEAs that participate in federal breakfast and lunch programs are required to create school wellness policies that describe...
Partial Pay for Baby Bonding Leave Extended to Classified and Community College Employees
October 2016 Number 84 In 2015, Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill (AB) 375 (see 2015 Client News Brief No. 56), which allowed certificated school district employees to use differential leave for up to 12 weeks when they take baby bonding leave under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA), effective January 1, 2016. On September 30, 2016, the Governor signed AB 2393, which extends the rights afforded under AB 375 to classified employees of school and community college districts...
Increase in Minimum Salary for Employees to be Exempt from Overtime Pay
June 2016 Number 39 On May 23, 2016, the United States Department of Labor published updated overtime regulations that increase the minimum salary amount necessary for employees to be exempt from overtime pay requirements. The updated regulations (Final Rule) will take effect on December 1, 2016. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1983 (FLSA) requires an employer to pay an employee at an overtime rate if the employee works more than 40 hours in one week. Employees can be exempt from th...
Reminder - Looming June 30 Deadline for Posting Competitive Athletics Data
June 2016 Number 36 The 2015-16 school year marks the first time that public elementary and secondary schools that offer "competitive athletics" must post data about the gender makeup of their teams and their student participation. Charter schools must also comply. By June 30 of each school year starting in 2016, each school must make the following information available on its website: 1) The total enrollment of the school, classified by gender; 2) The number of pupils enrolled at th...
County Committees May Now Decrease the Governing Board of Small School Districts from Five to Three Members
December 2015 Number 77 Small school districts sometimes have difficulty finding people to fill all seats on a five member board. To address this issue, the California legislature recently passed Assembly Bill (AB) 331, providing county committees on school district organization (County Committees) the authority to decrease school district governing boards from five members to three members in districts with an average daily attendance (ADA) of less than 300 during the preceding year. Spe...
New Changes to Paid Sick Leave Law Effective Immediately
September 2015 Number 49 On July 13, 2015, Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill (AB) 304 into law, which clarifies the provisions of the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 (Act), also known as AB 1522 or the "paid sick leave law." The Act expanded the right to paid sick leave to cover many more part-time employees in California. AB 304 clarifies portions of the Act and adds new options for compliance with the requirements of the Act. AB 304 was passed as an urgency measure an...
OCR Issues New Guidance Regarding Designating a Title IX Coordinator and an Overview of Title IX Requirements
May 2015 Number 28 The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a guidance package on April 24, 2015 discussing the obligation of school districts, colleges, and universities to designate a Title IX coordinator and providing guidelines for addressing sex discrimination in education programs and activities and meeting other Title IX requirements. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in all educati...
Court Clarifies Status of Former Permanent Certificated Employee Hired as Substitute
November 2014 Number 91 If a permanent certificated employee resigns from a school district and is reemployed within 39 months by the same school district, the school district must restore the employee to permanent status. (Ed. Code § 44931.) If the district hires the former employee as a substitute teacher, is it required to designate the teacher as permanent? In Edwards v. Lake Elsinore Unified School District (October 30, 2014) __ Cal.App.4th __ 2014 WL 5474984, the court confi...
The Ninth Circuit Provides Test for Determining Whether Schools Effectively Accommodate the Interests and Abilities of Members of Both Genders in Athletic Programs
October 2014 Number 74 A federal appeals court has held that a California school district violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) by failing to provide equal athletic opportunities for female athletes and retaliating against the female athletes by firing the softball coach, among other actions. This case is significant because it provides specific guidance on a school district's obligation to provide equal athletic opportunities under Title IX. In Ollier v. Swe...
AB 215 Modifies the Process for Suspending or Dismissing a Certificated Employee Under the Education Code
September 2014 Number 61 For several decades, California law has provided teachers with significant due process protections that, as a practical matter, have insulated them from suspension or dismissal except in rare cases. Many now contend that the current teacher dismissal process is cumbersome, expensive, and makes it difficult to dismiss teachers that should not be in the classroom. Assembly Bill (AB) 215 was recently passed and signed into law in an attempt to reform the teacher dism...