In a lengthy decision, the Supreme Court of the United States found that a Pennsylvania High School overstepped when it suspended a student from the cheerleading squad for using social media to criticize her exclusion from a spot on the varsity team and a private softball team. The High Court found the school’s actions to […]
Ennis Britton Proudly Welcomes Kyle Wheeler
Ennis Britton is delighted to announce that Kyle Wheeler, Esq., has joined the law firm. In addition to practicing in all areas of school law, Kyle joins the Special Education and Construction and Real Estate Practice Groups of Ennis Britton. Kyle is not new to the firm or our clients, having clerked with Ennis Britton […]
National Initiative to Address Sexual Assault in Schools
Last week, U. S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced plans for a new compliance review and data collection initiative to address the rise in sexual assaults in K-12 education, this time targeting the actions of adult employees toward school students. Among other things, the new initiative will implement provisions to prohibit public schools from […]
Arming School Personnel
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office recently released an opinion in response to a request for legal advice on the issue of arming school staff. The letter requested, among other things, an analysis on how the training requirements under R.C. 109.78(D) apply to school employees authorized by the board of education to carry or possess a […]
Changes Coming for Body Worn Camera and Dashboard Recordings
A new law may impact the obligations of schools, School Resource Officers, and law enforcement agencies, in general, in responding to a request for dash cam or body cam recordings. HB 425, which added new exceptions to the R.C. 149.43 definition of public records, becomes law on April 8, 2019. Under this new provision, portions […]
OAG Again Addresses Interest in Public Contracts
On March 16, the Ohio Attorney General released Opinion No. 2018-006, which again addresses board member interests in public contracts. In this instance, a member of a board of education leased a building through a limited liability company to the school district for which the part-owner served as a member of a board of education. […]
Students’ Right to Protest: A Reflection on the Tinker Decision
In 1965, a group of siblings and a family friend in Des Moines, Iowa, decided to wear black armbands to school in protest of the Vietnam War. When the principals of their schools became aware of the plan, they developed a policy prohibiting such protests – a policy that the students chose to ignore. As […]
Supreme Court’s Special Education Decision
Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District On March 22 the U.S. Supreme Court published an opinion in a significant special education case. Issuing out of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado, Endrew v. Douglas poses the question of what level of educational benefit public schools must provide to students with disabilities in […]
Allegations Lead to Title IX Claim against School District
A U.S. District Court in Massachusetts has allowed a legal claim against city and school administrators for peer-on-peer sexual harassment under Title IX. Several of the plaintiff’s other claims were dismissed, but the Title IX harassment claim was allowed to proceed. The case will be pursued in the U.S. District Court. Title IX of the […]
HB 64 Budget Bill Items Now in Effect
As with most other provisions of the budget bill (Am. Sub. HB 64) some significant provisions impacting Ohio school districts go into effect on September 29, 2015, including the following: The maximum amount of a scholarship awarded under the Autism or Jon Peterson scholarship programs increases to $27,000 (up from $20,000). School districts must offer […]