Victoria Act: rights of bedridden or wheelchair-using students

It is a bill of rights written for a specific population: the public-system student, under twenty-one, who is bedridden, uses a wheelchair or depends on technology keeping them alive. What sets it apart from other bills of rights is that it brings a fast remedy: the Court of First Instance, Municipal Division, with provisional states of law, an ex parte process and civil contempt if the order is not obeyed.

The law applies to students of the public teaching system, and the Department of Education is the administering body when the rights are claimed by students of that system. The rights are recognised for every student under twenty-one (21) with impairments who is bedridden, in a wheelchair or uses technology assisting them to stay alive. Separately, one of the catalogue’s rights is written more broadly: every public-system student with a physical or mental condition or special need shall have the right to receive the services necessary according to their condition and to be guaranteed a reasonable modification suited to their needs, as established in Act 51-1996 and the agreements of the class action Rosa Vélez v. Department of Education, KPE1980-1738.

• To be a student of the public teaching system, under twenty-one (21), with impairments, and to be bedridden, in a wheelchair or using technology assisting them to stay alive.Verified against the official source
• For the judicial remedy: to file the complaint before the Court of First Instance, Municipal Division, which has primary competence over matters relating to provisional states of law to enforce this Act.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: The home nurses may come into the school

   It is the right that most changes daily life and almost nobody knows it. The law recognises the right “to permit the student’s home health services to extend into the school setting, allowing the presence of health professionals such as nurses, respiratory therapists and emergency medical technicians-paramedics, without affecting the home health services authorised and covered by the insurers contracted by the Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration.” The final condition matters: extending the service to school should not cost the student the service at home.

2. 2

   Step 2: Tutors or teachers if emergency medical assistance is needed

   It is the right that holds the school year together. The law recognises the right that “in case of needing emergency medical or therapeutic assistance, tutors or teachers be provided for the different subjects; with this the student can meet the curriculum and, thereby, finish their school year.” Tutors or teachers, for the different subjects, not for one alone.

3. 3

   Step 3: Nobody may push them out of the regular curriculum

   The law names the posts one by one so there is no doubt whom it binds. “No Superintendent, Director, Teacher, teaching or administrative staff or any other employee may discriminate against, induce, directly or indirectly, or promote that students with impairments, who are bedridden, in a wheelchair or who use technology assisting them to stay alive, abandon the regular school curriculum.” Inducing indirectly is prohibited too.

4. 4

   Step 4: The school must remove the barriers

   It is written as the student’s right, not as a system aspiration: “The elimination of any type of architectural barrier or dangerous condition at the school that may affect students with impairments, who are bedridden, in a wheelchair or who use technology assisting them to stay alive, thereby guaranteeing their safety and accessibility within the facilities.”

5. 5

   Step 5: Dignified treatment and a ban on abuse and pressure

   The law covers both mistreatment and psychological pressure. It recognises the right “to enjoy an environment of calm, peace and respect for their right to privacy and dignity, at any school of the public education system, without being subjected to bodily or emotional abuse or psychological pressure because of their impairments.” And separately, the right “not to be discriminated against, harassed, intimidated or bullied within the public education system because of their impairments.”

6. 6

   Step 6: Counselling, economic help and interagency coordination

   These are three rights that tend to stay on paper, which is why they are worth quoting. To receive “professional counselling, help and guidance through the available programmes and trained personnel on the management of this population’s impairments, their medical conditions, changes in their health,” with “special emphasis on guaranteeing their permanence as a regular student of the public education system.” To receive “every kind of economic help and guidance on government subsidy programmes or alternatives favouring their social development and that of their family environment.” And to establish “effective coordination to guarantee access to the resources of the Department of the Family, the Department of Health and the Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration,” plus another specific coordination with the Department of Health for follow-up and care of the student’s condition.

7. 7

   Step 7: The remedy: Municipal Division, ex parte, five days

   Here is what makes this bill of rights different. “The Court of First Instance, Municipal Division, shall have primary competence over matters relating to provisional states of law to enforce this Act, including, but not limited to, protection orders, cease-and-desist orders, and orders to enforce the rights and obligations contemplated here.” And it describes the process: “This process shall be an expedited one, and once the complaint is filed in court, the moving party shall be heard ex parte, as fast as possible, and a provisional state of law shall be issued if the judge so deems necessary. If a provisional state is issued ex parte, or if the court does not issue one but deems it necessary to hear the other side, the opposing party must be summoned within a term of no more than five (5) days.”

8. 8

   Step 8: What happens if the order is not obeyed

   The law sets two consequences, one civil and one criminal. “Non-compliance with a court order under this Act shall be punished by civil contempt.” And on protection orders and provisional states: “Any person who violates this Article’s provisions, in relation to protection orders or provisional states of law, shall incur a misdemeanor and shall be sanctioned with imprisonment for a term not exceeding six (6) months, or a fine of no less than five hundred ($500) dollars and no more than five thousand ($5,000) dollars or both penalties at the Court’s discretion.” And it adds that nothing prevents the additional imposition of administrative sanctions the Department of Education may impose by regulation.

9. 9

   Step 9: The condition the law places on itself

   We say it because anyone going to claim will run into it. The interpretation article provides that nothing in the law excludes, curtails, limits, impairs or diminishes the rights recognised in other local or federal laws in favour of minors, and then adds: “Everything provided in this Act shall be done provided the local resources available for health and education so permit, in accordance with Puerto Rico’s constitutional principles and its applicable case law.” It is a condition on the whole Act and worth knowing before entering a proceeding.

10. 10

    Step 10: The Department must publish it and may not curtail it

    It helps in demanding the bill be known. The law orders the Department of Education to establish the mechanisms for publishing, educating about and generally disseminating the bill, to notify its existence “in at least one (1) newspaper of general circulation for three (3) consecutive days,” and to publish it in full on its website. And it closes: “The Department of Education of Puerto Rico shall not tolerate the curtailment or limitation of the students’ rights contained in this Act; they are not exhaustive nor do they exclude any other right the legal order grants them.” The Department must also conform its regulations within a term of no more than ninety (90) days.

The Department of Education is the administering body when the rights are claimed by a public-system student, so that is where the claim starts. If it is not addressed, the law opens the judicial route at the Court of First Instance, Municipal Division, which has primary competence over provisional states of law to enforce this Act. The law also obliges the Department of Education and the Office of Court Administration to provide students with access to the rights granted here. If your matter is the student’s general rights or a special education complaint, those have their own guides here.

• Believing there is nowhere to go: the law gives primary competence to the Municipal Division of the Court of First Instance, with an expedited, ex parte process.
• Accepting that home nurses or therapists cannot come into the school: the law recognises the right for those services to extend into the school setting.
• Losing the school year to hospitalisations: the law recognises the right to tutors or teachers for the different subjects when emergency medical or therapeutic assistance is involved.
• Accepting a suggestion to leave the regular curriculum: the law prohibits inducing, directly or indirectly, or promoting that abandonment.
• Thinking that extending the service to school removes the service at home: the law expressly says it is without affecting the authorised and covered home services.
• Believing the bill exhausts the rights: the law says they are not exhaustive nor do they exclude any other right in the legal order.
• Ignoring the resource condition: the law provides its terms shall be carried out provided local health and education resources permit.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Educación de Puerto Rico

  Educación

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov