Yes, we are in NYC. We originally chose a boarding school because our son speaks English poorly, and from what I understand, this can sometimes create challenges in public schools — both for teachers who need to give more attention, and for other students whose learning time may be affected. We wanted to avoid putting him or others in a difficult position while he is still learning the language.
This particular boarding school advertised strong support for international students and English language learners, so we believed it would be the best environment for him to integrate, improve his English, and feel included. Our plan was for him to stay there for a year or two while he builds his language skills.
Right now we are in the process of transferring him to another school, but the problem is that the new school requires recommendations from the current one — and given everything that happened, we are genuinely worried that the administration might provide a harmful recommendation out of defensiveness. That would put our son in a very difficult situation.
At the moment, I am trying to understand how legally protected children are in the U.S. in situations like this. Everything I believed about child protection standards here makes it shocking to see a school behave this way, as if they are completely confident there will be no consequences.
So I’m trying to understand whether it makes sense to hire an attorney — both to protect our child and to ensure that his transfer process is fair. If anyone has experience with this, I would be very grateful for advice.
Thank you again for responding — your perspective really helps us navigate this.