U.S. Department of Education Weighs In on Handling of Transgender Student Complaints
On February 12, 2018, BuzzFeed News issued an article detailing an interview with U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) officials wherein the USDOE spokesperson outlined the department’s policy on how it would handle transgender student complaints. The details of this...
IDEA, Child Find, and Evaluations
During Ennis Britton’s October 2017 Special Education Symposium, participants around the state were given the opportunity to submit questions on note cards. Because of time constraints and the large response, our Special Education Team was not able to address all of...
Ennis Britton Announces New Shareholders!
Ennis Britton is very pleased to announce that Ryan M. LaFlamme, Pamela A. Leist, Giselle S. Spencer, Erin Wessendorf-Wortman, and Megan Bair Zidian have been promoted to the position of shareholder in the firm. “We are proud to have such a fine cohort of attorneys...
House Bill 170 Advances Tech-Driven Education in Ohio
HB 170 provides the option for secondary schools to offer instruction in computer science. After the bill passed in the House, the Senate amended it, and the House then reviewed and agreed to the changes. Gov. Kasich signed the bill on December 22. Model curriculum...
Fourth Hearing Slated for Education Deregulation Bill
The Senate Education Committee has announced a fourth hearing on Senate Bill 216 to be held on Wednesday, December 13, at 9:45 a.m. in the North Hearing Room of the Senate Building in Columbus. The time of the meeting has been changed to allow for a longer meeting, as...
Ennis Britton attorneys named 2018 Ohio Rising Stars!
We are very pleased to announce that four Ennis Britton attorneys have been selected as 2018 Ohio Rising Stars! No more than 2.5 percent of attorneys in Ohio receive this award, which is given for demonstrating excellence in the practice of law. Congratulations to...
Workers’ Compensation Legislation in the Works
The General Assembly is currently considering three different Workers’ Compensation bills that may affect schools. These bills will most likely undergo changes during the deliberation process. The summary below describes the provisions of each of these bills as...
Ohio Supreme Court Decision: Substitute Custodian Is Not a Regular Employee
The Ohio Supreme Court recently determined that a substitute custodian was not a “regular nonteaching school employee,” a designation that would have entitled him to better wages and benefits. The employee, substitute custodian Kurt Singer, demanded that the Fairland...
Unboxing the Education Deregulation bill: What’s inside SB 216
Senate Bill 216, introduced on October 10 by Ohio Sen. Matt Huffman, is the culmination of a collaboration of legislators and school superintendents, including a working group of a BASA committee and more than 40 superintendents from Senate District 12. The bill has...
First Amendment Free Speech Rights: Can Student Athletes #TakeTheKnee?
During a speech in Alabama on September 22, President Trump made some comments that provoked a number of professional athletes to kneel or sit – or even stay in the locker room – during the national anthem on Sunday’s NFL games. In a nutshell, Trump said that NFL...
Additional Graduation Pathways for Class of 2018
House Bill 49, the budget bill, provides two additional pathways for graduation for the class of 2018. In short, the first option is an academic pathway, and the second is a career-tech pathway. (See also the Ennis Britton blog post on the new graduation...
Budget Bill, Part II: Uncodified Law
To continue our review of the education-related provisions of the state budget, we will look at the temporary law, or uncodified sections, of the budget. If you scroll toward the end of the five thousand-plus pages of the budget, you will find some odd numbering. You...
Budget Bill Overview: Impacts on Education in Ohio
Every two years, Ohio legislators and the governor are tasked with passing a biannual budget for the state. Ohio’s budget bill always has a direct effect on public education, from both a financial and an operational perspective. On June 30, Gov. Kasich signed a final...
Resignation Triggers Halt to Fringe Benefits
In an arbitration decision published June 12, a grievance calling for a school district’s employment benefits to continue past the effective date of a teacher’s resignation was denied. After three teachers retired, their health insurance benefits ceased, but the...
Arbitrator May Override Employer’s Disciplinary Decision — Absent Contract Limitations
Reversing the decision of two lower courts, the Ohio Supreme Court recently ruled that absent negotiated language in a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) limiting an arbitrator’s authority to modify a disciplinary action for just cause, an arbitrator has authority...
Changes in Teaching Staff: Dates and Procedures
In our May issue of School Law Review, we covered important dates and procedures for teacher nonrenewal, including the required May dates for evaluations. Unless a collective bargaining agreement provides otherwise, a board of education that wishes to nonrenew a...
Ohio Supreme Court Finds School’s Backpack Search Constitutional
In a unanimous opinion, the Ohio Supreme Court has held that a school’s search of an unattended bag, and the two subsequent searches that initiated from the initial search, were constitutional. The court held that the searches served a compelling governmental interest...
Employer Sued for Workers’ Comp a Year After Employee Quit Job
The Supreme Court of Ohio recently issued an opinion in a workers’ compensation case in which an employer was sued for disability payments even after the employee had quit and moved on to another job. The employee, Norman James Jr., worked for Walmart at the time he...
New Laws Governing District Property
General Assembly Once Again Changes Rules on Disposal of Real Property In 2015 Ohio’s General Assembly enacted R.C. 3313.413. This statute added another step to the process for disposing of real property worth $10,000 or more. The statute required school districts to...
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...
New State Law Expands Use and Possession of Weapons on School Grounds
Senate Bill 199, which was passed during the lame duck session and signed by the governor in December, significantly expands the rights of certain individuals to possess weapons on public school grounds. State law generally prohibits an individual from conveying or...