The Ohio Supreme Court issued an important opinion yesterday in a case stemming from ongoing litigation between 10 Cleveland community (charter) schools and their operator White Hat Management (“White Hat”). The case, Hope Academy Broadway Campus v. White Hat Mgt., LLC, centers around who owns the personal property that was purchased with public funds, but used by White Hat in the schools’ daily operations. The OSBA Legal Assistance Fund (LAF) filed an …
Posted by Candice Christon on
May a teacher who is a family member of the superintendent be employed by the school district?
Yes. Under Ohio Revised Code Section (RC) 3319.07, an individual that is designated by the board of education may nominate a teacher to be employed by the school district if the superintendent’s nomination of the individual would violate RC 2921.42. This is an exception to the law, which normally requires a nomination by the superintendent for a teacher to be employed by the district.
Previous law prevented the superintendent’s family member from being hired…
Posted by Shadya Yazback on
With the end of summer comes falling leaves, football, and OSBA’s legal hotline abuzz with enrollment questions throughout the state. One of those questions: our school district requests a student’s social security number (SSN) to enroll students. What do we do if the parent doesn’t provide one?
Under the Privacy Act of 1974, a school district may not prevent a student from enrollment for failure to provide their SSN or proof the student has an SSN.
School districts are permitted to ask for a…
Posted by Sara Clark on
I’ve blogged on the topic of January board vacancies before, but we’ve received so many questions on this topic recently, it seems appropriate to push out another communication.
Nearly every election, there are a handful of districts across the state who have more open seats on their board of education than interested candidates (e.g. two potential candidates running for three open seats). Last Monday (Aug. 24) was the deadline for write-in candidates to file, so you should know by now whether your district will face this…
Posted by Candice Christon on
Unmarried parents and enrollment issues
Under Ohio Revised Code Section (RC) 3109.042, an unmarried woman that gives birth to a child is the sole legal custodian and residential parent of that child unless and until a court issues an order that designates another individual, including the father, as the legal custodian and residential parent. This is true even if the unmarried father’s name appears on the birth certificate.
This means that an unmarried father will not have certain legal rights including the right to sign permission slips,…
Posted by Shadya Yazback on
The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) has released an information sheet on testing dates for FY2016, adjusted for the changes required by the recent passage of the biennium budget. The department has also issued a guidance document on safe harbor provisions designed to assist administrators in understanding the…
Posted by Sara Clark on
We wanted to direct your attention to two new legal resources that can be used by school attorneys, board members, and the districts they serve.
- Academic Distress Commissions
House bill 70, which was signed by Gov. John Kasich on July 16, made significant changes to state academic distress commissions. Under the new law, which will become effective on October 15, the superintendent of public instruction is required to establish an academic distress commission for any school district that: 1) receives an overall grade of “F” for three consecutive years…
Posted by Shadya Yazback on
OSBA’s legal division recently received a question from a member who asked whether a board could adopt a policy requiring proof of vaccinations for service animals accompanying students in the district’s buildings. The board’s purpose in asking for such proof was to confirm that the animal was not a health risk to students in the building.
A federal court case earlier this year examined the issue in-depth. In Alboniga v. School Board of Broward County, Florida…
Posted by Sara Clark on
On July 6, 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published its much-anticipated proposed changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). These proposed regulations are the response to President Obama’s March 2014 directive to the Secretary of Labor to “update and modernize” the overtime exemption rules under the FLSA. If adopted, the changes will have a significant impact on employers’ abilities to treat certain employees as exempt from receiving overtime compensation.
Current regulations
The FLSA is a federal law that sets forth minimum wage, overtime,…
Posted by Candice Christon on
It’s that time of year again to attend the Ohio School Boards Association’s annual Attendance, Tuition and Custody Law Workshop. The workshop will take place on August 7, 2015, at the Nationwide Hotel & Conference Center. The workshop will include the following sessions:
- Registering and placing of immigrant students
- Making sense of court orders and custody documents
- The top 10 EMIS coding mistakes
- Views from the bench and the trench: attendance challenges
- Open enrollment policies and procedures
We hope you will join us! To…