Lozano Smith's Student Practice Group is recognized statewide for its steadfast, proactive and creative assistance to school districts and expertise on a broad range of student issues, due to the large number of school districts that we represent and the fact that we have represented schools for more than 35 years.
Areas of Practice
To best serve the needs and promote the success of its clients, the firm's Student Practice Group has broad expertise in:
Title IX
Lozano Smith’s Title IX Practice Area is comprised of specialists dedicated to the pressing issues faced clients. From athletics to sexual violence, this team advises, trains, and educates clients on the various components of Title IX – from prevention and mitigation to investigations resulting in disciplinary action. Areas in which the group provides advice and training include:
- Athletics, including audits of athletic programs
- Sex-based discrimination
- Pregnant and parenting students
- Single-sex education
- Issues relating to transgender and students
- Developing and auditing complaint grievance procedures and policies
- Responding to reports of sexual misconduct and harassment
- Investigating complaints of sexual misconduct and harassment
- Title IX Coordinator roles and responsibilities
- District and employee liability
- Reporting obligations
- Interaction with law enforcement agencies
- Discipline of students
- Litigation
- VAWA/Clery Act
- Trainings
Real World Applications
The Student Practice Group at Lozano Smith understands the hurdles and opportunities facing its clients, and has an unsurpassed level of experience and
expertise to protect the interests and promote the success of school districts, their staff and students. Of particular significance is the firm's
leadership in student discipline matters. Lozano Smith regularly helps districts to develop comprehensive policies and regulations aimed at preventing
student discipline problems, as well as all other policy issues impacting student rights, including student speech, student clubs, student transfers, and
student fees, to name only a few. When discipline problems do surface, the firm provides practical advice and assistance as to all aspects of suspensions,
expulsions, involuntary transfers and alternative forms of discipline.
President Trump Signs Executive Order Banning Transgender Women from Women’s and Girls’ Sports
February 2025Number 12On February 5, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) entitled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” (EO 14168). Specifically, the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” EO asserts that women’s sports are reserved for biological women, which was previously defined in EO 14168 as an “adult and juvenile female” whose sex, or “immutable biolog...
California Attorney General Responds to President’s Executive Order Regarding “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling”
February 2024Number 11On January 29, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” which aims to address what is described as the influence of “radical, anti-American ideologies” and the resulting infringement on parental rights. While the EO previews policies the Trump Administration intends to implement, it remains to be seen precisely how those policies will take shape and how they might conflict with ...
CDE's New Guidance on AB 1955 (SAFETY Act): Evolution of LGBTQ+ Student Protections and Implementation Changes
February 2025Number 10The California Department of Education (CDE) has released new guidance on Assembly Bill (AB) 1955, known as the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth (SAFETY) Act, representing a significant shift from the previous guidance CDE has provided since 2014 after AB 1266 was passed. This alert analyzes key changes and the implications for Local Educational Agencies (LEAs).Background Since 2014, California Education Code section 220 has prohibited disc...
Department of Homeland Security Issues Directive Rescinding Policy Limiting Immigration Enforcement in Protected Areas
February 2025Number 9On January 20, 2025, Acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary, Benjamine Huffman, rescinded a longstanding policy that shielded places like schools, hospitals, and churches from immigration enforcement. This was replaced with a directive granting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents’ broad authority to conduct enforcement actions in these locations.BackgroundFor over a decade, DHS policy limited immig...
California’s Fentanyl Legislation: Student Instruction and Emergency Treatment of Opioid Overdoses
January 2025Number 6The California Legislature recently passed several student health and instruction bills related to fentanyl education and student possession and use of emergency opioid overdose medication and test strips.Assembly Bill (AB) 2998 prevents school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools from prohibiting students 12 years of age or older from carrying or administering federally approved nonprescription opioid overdose medication to provide emergency treatme...
California Attorney General Publishes Updated Guide on the Rights of Undocumented Immigrant Students and Families
January 2025Number 1In December 2024, the California Attorney General’s Office (AG) published a new edition of their guide addressing policies to protect the rights of undocumented students and their families. The guide is titled, “Promoting a Safe and Secure Learning Environment for All: Guidance and Model Policies to Assist California’s K-12 Schools in Responding to Immigration Issues.”BackgroundIn April 2018, the AG published the first edition of the guide and model...
OCR Warns of Discrimination Risks Caused by Use of AI
January 2025Number 3The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published new guidance, “Avoiding the Discriminatory Use of Artificial Intelligence,” highlighting how schools’ use of artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to civil rights violations related to racial, sexual, and disability discrimination. The guidance document provides examples of AI-related scenarios that might trigger OCR investigations under federal civil rights laws. While AI ...
