Back to School Reminder: Student Residency Requirements
As students pack their book-bags and return to school, it’s important to keep in mind the law governing their entrance through your doors. In order to accommodate the registration process, schools much comply with the legal requirements of Ohio Revised Code 3313.64....
Deadline for Teachers to Terminate Employment Contracts Passed on July 10th
As July comes to a close, schools across Ohio have begun to gear up for another school year. Yet just when you think you have put the chaos of staffing buildings and assigning students behind you, inevitably a teacher who would be very hard to replace at this juncture...
U.S. Supreme Court Supports Employer’s Refusal to Cover Costs of Certain Contraceptives
The U.S. Supreme Court issued yet another precedent-setting decision this week for employers. In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 573 U.S. _____ (June 30, 2104), the Supreme Court held in a 5-4 decision that regulations which require employers to provide health...
2014 Mid-Biennium Education Bill Signed into Law
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...
U.S. Supreme Court limits fair-share fees on labor unions
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...
Law Enforcement Must Have a Warrant to Search a Cell Phone
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,...
State Legislators Tweak Teacher Evaluations . . . Again!
Ohio legislators have once again modified the Ohio teacher evaluation system this month through passage of House Bill 362. The bill, which still awaits the Governor’s signature, reduces the frequency of evaluations for certain teachers and also creates an optional...
Precision in disciplinary codes protects against disparate impact claims
As school children prepare for summer break, school administrators begin turning their attention to long-term projects that are deferred during the regular school year. Consider adding a review of your student disciplinary code to your summer to do list. In January,...
Ohio Supreme Court Again Upholds Voluntary Abandonment Doctrine
State ex rel. Jacobs v. Indus. Comm. This month, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld a denial of temporary total disability (TTD) benefits for an employee based on job abandonment. TTD benefits serve as wage replacement for employees who have suffered a workplace injury...
Ohio House Proposes Many Changes to Evaluation Procedures under Substitute S.B. 229
The Ohio House Education Committee has unveiled sweeping changes to Substitute Senate Bill 229 with regard to teacher and principal evaluations. The original version of SB 229, which passed the Senate unanimously on December 4th, 2013, modified frequency and...
FMLA “Health Care Provider” Certifications Rarely Acceptable From Chiropractors
We've recently seen an increase in the number of FMLA "Health Care Provider" certifications that are completed by chiropractors. As many of you know, the FMLA grants eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for several reasons, including a serious health...
Affordable Care Act Employer Mandate Delayed (in part) Again.
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...
Ohio Legislature Considers Flurry of Bills in an Attempt to Ease Burden of Harsh Winter on Schools
The Ohio House of Representatives and Ohio Senate are both considering bills to ease the burden on Ohio school districts that have taken an unusual number of calamity days this school year due to harsh winter conditions. One of the pending bills, House Bill 416, was...
ODE Temporarily Permits Submission of Online Make-up Plans for 2013-2014
The Ohio Department of Education recently announced that it will temporarily lift the August 1st deadline for submission of online calamity day make-up plans to assist school districts that have experienced a high number of weather-related closings this school year....
HR Compliance for 2014
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:...
Unilateral Implementation of Teacher Evaluation Policy Permissible
The State Employment Relations Board (SERB) upheld the clear and unambiguous language of R.C. §3319.111, holding that school districts may implement a new teacher evaluation policy in line with OTES without negotiating with their teachers association when the...
New Year’s Resolution for Special Education
It is probably not high on your list of New Year’s Resolution priorities, but special education staff at Ohio public schools should add this one: Send even more prior written notice forms. For over a year, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) had been floating the...
No requirement to create wheelchair basketball leagues
The federal Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a “Dear Colleague Letter” on January 25, 2013, that seemed to require school districts to offer alternative sports options for children with disabilities. OCR is charged with enforcing Section 504, among other laws. ...
Ohio Supreme Court Upholds Termination of Religious Science Teacher For Insubordination
On November 19, 2013, the Ohio Supreme Court concluded that, pursuant to R.C. 3319.16, acts of insubordination constitute “good and just cause” to terminate a teacher’s contract as long as the underlying rules or directives violated were themselves reasonable and...
There Are No “Slam Dunks” When Terminating Teachers
The Strasburg-Franklin Local School District provided its teachers with school district laptops. A teacher asked if he could take his laptop home for the summer and was told that he could but that he needed to return it by June 30th. The teacher failed to return the...
Light Duty Offers
One of the goals of the workers' compensation system is to get employees back to work as quickly and as safely as possible. One way that employers may be able to bring employees back quickly is by offering light duty work to the employee. In order to enable the...