by Erin Wessendorf-Wortman | Jun 30, 2014 | General, Legislation
House Bill 487, the mid-biennium education bill, reviewed in last month’s ERF School Law Review newsletter, was signed into law on June 16, 2014. Except as indicated otherwise in the statute, HB 487 becomes effective September 15, 2014. Some of the upcoming changes in the law include the following:
- College and Work-Ready Assessment System-
- For students entering the 9th grade on or after July 1, 2014, the OGT requirement will be replaced by the College and Work-Ready Assessments System, which is comprised of two assessments:
- (1) Nationally standardized assessment measuring college and career readiness and
- (2) End-of-Course Exams.
- High School Graduation Requirements-
- For students entering the 9th grade on or after July 1, 2014, the OGT is no longer a requirement for graduation.
- Instead, students must meet one of the following options:
- (1) Score at “remediation-free” levels in English, math, and reading on the nationally standardized assessment;
- (2) Obtain a minimum cumulative performance score on end-of-course exams; or
- (3) Obtain a passing score on a nationally recognized job skills assessment andobtain either an industry-recognized credential or a state agency- or board-issued license for practice in a specific vocation.
- Statewide Curriculum Requirements-
- Extends exemption from the Ohio core curriculum requirements for graduation (now referred to solely as “requirements for graduation”) until July 1, 2016
- For students entering 9th grade for the first time on or after July 1, 2014 (Class of 2018), in addition to the current requirements, the following changes must be satisfied for the exemption to apply:
- The student has a Student Success Plan (previously called “individual career plan”) and
- The student meets the other graduation requirements, including the following curricular changes:
- 4 units of math (instead of 3 under current law),
- One must be probability and statistics, computer programming, applied mathematics, quantitative reasoning, or any other course approved by ODE before October 1, 2014;
- 5 elective units (instead of 6 under current law); and
- 3 units of science which are inquiry-based laboratory experience that engage students in asking valid scientific questions and gathering and analyzing information.
- Third-Grade Reading Guarantee-
- Allows school districts to submit an alternative staffing plan for the 2014-2015 or 2015-2016 school years if the school district is unable to provide the number of teachers who meet the criteria needed to teach 3rd grade students below grade level.
- Establishes the English-language arts assessment to be administered to 3rd graders during the 2014-2015 school year:
- Fall- Same assessment administered during the 2013-2014 school year;
- Spring-
- For students who failed to obtain the minimum score on the assessment and would be subject to retention—same assessment administered during the 2013-2014 school year; and
- For students who have obtained the needed minimum score and would not be subject to retention—the PARCC assessment.
- Online Administration of Assessments-
- For the 2014-2015 school year, school districts are not required to administer assessments through an online format.
- School districts have the option to administer the assessments in any combination of online and paper format.
- Safe Harbor for the 2014-2015 School Year-
- School districts may enter into an MOU with the teachers’ union stating that the value-added progress dimension score from the 2014-2015 school year will not be used to make decisions about teacher dismissal, retention, tenure, or compensation.
- Prohibits various penalties and sanctions due to a school district’s report card rating.
- Prohibits from assigning an overall letter grade to schools and school districts.
- Emergency Management Plan-
- Changes the name of School Safety Plan to Emergency Management Plan.
- Requires the administrator of a school district to develop and adopt a comprehensive Emergency Management Plan including a floor plan, site plan, and emergency contact information, as well as protocols for threats and emergency events.
- “Administrator” means superintendent, principal, chief administrative officer, or other person having supervisory authority over the school district.
- Requires the administrator to review and certify the accuracy of the plan to ODE by July 1st of each year.
- In addition to current requirements, the plan must be updated whenever the emergency contact information changes.
- Requires the administrator to schedule an annual emergency management test.
- “Emergency management test” means a regularly scheduled drill, exercise, or activity designed to assess and evaluate the Emergency Management Plan.
- The State Board must adopt standardized rules and standardized forms for Emergency Management Plans.
- Because it is unlikely that the State Board will have adopted rules and standardized forms prior to the effective date of September 15, 2014, the expectations for the 2014-2015 school year are unclear at this time.
- Career-Technical Education-
- Expands requirement to provide career-technical education to students in grades 7-12.
- If a Board of Education decides not to provide career-technical education for students enrolled in grades 7-8 in a particular school year, the Board must adopt a resolution and submit it to ODE by September 30th of that school year.
by Erin Wessendorf-Wortman | Jun 30, 2014 | General, Labor and Employment
In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that partial-public employees could not be required to pay fair-share fees when the only reason the partial-public employees were deemed to be “public” employees was solely for union formation and collection of dues. The case arose out of Illinois, where lawmakers classified home health care workers, paid by federal Medicaid dollars, as State employees. The home health care workers were then required to pay dues/fair-share fees to the Service Employees International Union. SEIU was the exclusive union to bargain with Illinois over wages, hours, working conditions, and other terms and conditions of employment.
However, and key to the Court’s decision in this case, the home health care workers were controlled by the customers they served, not the State of Illinois. The job duties of the home health care workers were set by customers and the customers’ physicians. Customers have complete discretion in hiring any home health care worker meeting the State’s criteria and qualifications. Customers control all supervision and evaluation(s) of the home health care workers, and the State has no power to enter a customer’s home to evaluate job performance. The customer had the sole authority of discharge of the home health care workers; the State could not discharge a home health care worker from a customer’s home for substandard performance.
In relying on the terms of their employment, the Court found the home health care workers to be partial-public employees, and therefore, different than public-school teachers or police officers who work directly for the government or a political subdivision. Because states often set wages for partial-public employees, like home health care workers, and because unions often do not conduct collective bargaining for them, the Court determined that the home health care workers could not be required to pay union fees.
The Court found that, except in the exceptional circumstances, “no person in this country may be compelled to subsidize speech by a third party that he or she does not wish to support.”
For the full opinion click here.
by Erin Wessendorf-Wortman | Jun 25, 2014 | Student Education and Discipline
The U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion on two cases on June 25, 2014, which prohibits law enforcement from searching the contents of cell phones without warrants. Riley v. California, 573 U.S. _____ (2014); U.S. v. Wurie, 573 U.S. _____ (2014). In these cases, police officers did not have probable cause to search the individuals’ cell phones, but instead relied on the exception law enforcement has of a search incident a lawful arrest. This exception allows police officers to conduct a search of a person and area within his/her immediate control during an arrest for the safety and protection of law enforcement personnel and for the preservation of evidence.
However, when considering whether cell phones could be searched without a warrant utilizing the exception of a search incident to a lawful arrest, the Court focused on the prevalence of cell phones in modern society and the vast quantities of personal information stored on cell phones. The Court even indicated that cell phones “are now such a pervasive and insistent part of daily life that the proverbial visitor from Mars might conclude they were an important feature of human anatomy.”
The Court found that the vast amount of personal information stored on cell phones, and the inherent privacy of that personal information, outweighed any of the government’s concerns for police officer safety or protection of data. It reasoned that digital data on a cell phone could not itself be used as a weapon to harm an arresting police officer or to effectuate the escape of the arrestee. Further, the Court indicated that any concern of data destruction, either through remote wiping or data encryption, could be alleviated through a police department’s own means of data recovery once a warrant was obtained. In the end, the Court indicated while “[p]rivacy comes at a cost”, cell phones are still capable of being searched, once warrants are appropriately acquired.
While these cases only apply to law enforcement officers, it will have an impact in school districts looking to involve their school resource officers in searches of students’ cell phones. School resource officers should not be searching students’ phones without warrants given this ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. However, these cases do not impact how school administrators conduct investigations and searches related to school discipline. School districts are still held to a reasonableness standard when conducting searches of students: the search must be justified at inception and reasonable in scope.
If a school administrator believes that a student has violated school policy(ies) through utilizing his/her cell phone while on school campus, the school administrator may search the student’s cell phone for evidence of the violations. However, school administrators must use caution when searching a student’s phone. For example, a student simply possessing a cell phone on school property in violation of Board policy will not permit an administrator to search the student’s cell phone. If a student has a cell phone out in his/her lap during a test, this may permit an administrator to search the student’s phone for evidence of cheating in appropriate and reasonable areas of the phone. If evidence of a criminal violation is believed to be found on a student’s cell phone during an administrator’s search, the evidence should be turned over to the school resource officer after the search has been conducted.
by Erin Wessendorf-Wortman | Feb 11, 2014 | General, Labor and Employment
On February 10, 2014, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service gave businesses an extra year to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate. Click for U.S. Treasury Press Release.
Effective immediately, businesses with 50-99 employees will not face penalties for failing to provide health care coverage until 2016. However, these businesses will have to provide the government with information regarding their employees’ health insurance plans.
Previously, businesses with 100+ employees needed to provide health care coverage by January 1, 2015 for at least 95% of full-time workers or face a penalty of $2,000 per full-time employee (minus the first 30 employees). Now, the administration has amended this requirement so that on January 1, 2015, businesses with 100+ employees must offer health care coverage to at least 70% of their full-time workers, or face a penalty. This percentage jumps back up to 95% on January 1, 2016.
by Erin Wessendorf-Wortman | Jan 20, 2014 | School Management
Even with the plethora of snow days in Ohio this month, it is officially 2014. A variety of items in health care and minimum wage have changed. Ensure your district is compliant with these regulation updates in health care and minimum wage.
As of January 1, 2014:
- Minimum wage was raised in Ohio to $7.95 per hour.
- Transitional reinsurance fee in effect under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Health insurance issuers and self-funded group health plans need to pay fees for the first three years of operation of the health insurance exchanges.
- Individual health insurance mandate in effect. (Remember the IRS moved the ACA’s employer mandate to January 1, 2015.)
- New rules for applying annual limits and preventative care to defined contribution health care plans in effect, including HRAs, health flexible spending arrangements, and employer payment plans.
- New rules regarding outcome-based wellness program incentives in effect.
- Health plan design requirements in effect under the ACA. Health plans cannot place annual limits on essential health benefits; impose pre-existing condition exclusions on enrollees; or impose a waiting period more than 90 days.
- HSA employee contribution limits are $3,300 for self-only coverage, and $6,550 for family coverage.
- FSA employee contributions remain unchanged at $2,500, but the new FSA rule dropping the “use it or lose it” takes effect. This permits employees to carryover up to $500 of their unused account balances from the previous year, or have until March to spend last year’s money, with prior employer approval.
