[Nfbc-info] please support California bill AB 2122 for students with disabilities, update on the bill

Deepa Goraya deepa.goraya at gmail.com
Mon Apr 16 02:08:20 UTC 2012


I want to alert you to an important bill moving through the California
Legislature that has incredible significance for students with disabilities
entering law school.  The National Association of Law Students with
Disabilities (NALSWD) has been very active with the California bill AB 2122,
which seeks to ensure LSAT accommodations and stop the flagging process.
This is a very important bill, and if it passes in California, we hope other
states will follow.  Our Co-VP, Nora Devine, testified at the AB 2122
Committee Hearing and she has drafted a template letter.  Please click here
:
http://nalswd.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4b9a395f0d4165f064b590b1e&id
=a4b76316a8&e=fff8d6737e>  to download the letter, fill it out with your own
story, and send your letter by Monday, April 9, 2012, but no later than
April 18. There are two letters in the template, one for Assemblyman Lara
and the other for the general assembly. But you can send both letters to the
email address listed at the top of the template.

Also, Assemblyman Lara's office is working with legislative council to draft
amendments for the bill going forward to ensure it provides students with
maximum protection under the ADA. They cannot change the bill for the
Assembly vote; it is too late to make a floor amendment. But they will make
the amendments for the Senate bill and then bring the bill back to the
Assembly for a confer vote.   Here is the amended language below:

" .Because the damages available under the Unruh Act are considerably
greater than the $750 civil penalty provided for violations of the Education
Code, Sisability Rights California suggests the following section be added:
(4) The requirements of this Section shall not be construed to limit or
replace any other right or remedy that exists under state or federal law"

To clarify, you do not need to be a member of NALSWD to fill out your
letters. You only must be a student with a disability who has had problems
with the LSAT in terms of receiving your accommodations, flagging of your
test score, or any other issues with LSAC having to do with the LSAT. You
can simply omit the language relating to NALSWD in your letters before you
send them.

You can find more information about the bill including the hearing testimony
here: http://www.calchannel.com/channel/viewVideo/3517
<http://nalswd.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4b9a395f0d4165f064b590b1e&i
d=19f27d290a&e=fff8d6737e> .  Testimony begins around 8:30.  The text of the
bill can be found here: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.
<http://nalswd.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=4b9a395f0d4165f064b590b1e&
id=e83bab4f21&e=fff8d6737e>
gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml;jsessionid=2f45db1d823e85da7ba0fa24f5a2?bill_
id=201120120AB2122.

Thanks in advance for your help with this issue!

Deepa





More information about the NFBC-Info mailing list