The Legal Ledger

Question: What is required in order to opt out of the new career-technical education (CTE) program requirements for 7th & 8th grade students?

Answer: Beginning with the 2015-2016 school year, districts must provide CTE to students in grades 7 and 8. However, the statute (RC 3313.90(B)) allows district boards of education to pass a resolution that specifies the district's intent "not to provide career-technical education to students enrolled in grades seven and eight for a particular school year" and requires the…

Ohio Revised Code Section (RC) 3313.7112 outlines the required care for students with diabetes. Each board of education must ensure that each student enrolled in the district who has diabetes receives the appropriate and needed care for his or her diabetes, in accordance with a signed order from the student’s treating physician.

Diabetes care. Diabetes care includes:

• Checking and recording blood glucose levels and ketone levels, in which the student may need assistance;
• Responding to levels outside the student’s target range;
• Administering…

All elected officials or their appropriate designees are required to attend public records training approved by the attorney general (RC 149.43(E)).  The training must be for three hours for each term of office for which the elected official was appointed or elected to the public office (RC 109.43(B)).

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office (OAG) has recently made the training available online.  As an alternative to a live three-hour certification training session, public officials or their designees can take the training online. The training consists of 13 separate YouTube…

Recently, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) published guidance entitled “Clarification on Accessibility and Accommodations for New State Tests.” As noted by ODE, the guidance document provides answers to these questions:

• What are accessibility features and accommodations and how have these changed in the 2014-2015 school year?
• What are the federal IDEA rules and how does Ohio ensure compliance?
• How do the new changes impact an IEP team’s decisions?

A copy of this guidance document may be found on ODE’s website at…

Each board of education is required by law to adopt a “school safety plan” for each building in the district. Recently, the laws have changed regarding the creation and submission of these plans.  Changes to RC 3313.536 became effective last fall, and ODE’s accompanying administrative rule (OAC 3301-5-01) became effective in January.  Changes include:

Name change.  Previously, the law referred to these plans as “school safety plans.”  The new laws change the name of the plans to “emergency management plans.”

More schools must adopt plans.…

It’s that time of year to start gearing up for Capital Conference. Capital Conference will take place November 8-11 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Nominate a speaker or propose a topic online here.

Also, take a look here for possible session topics. The deadline to submit proposals is Monday, March 16 and proposals will only be accepted in an electronic format. If you have additional questions, please contact OSBA…

In many school districts in Ohio and across the country, families are attempting to "opt out" of mandated state assessments, particularly those aligned to the Common Core. Opt-out requests can take several forms. In some cases, parents choose to keep their children home from school on test and make-up days. In others, the student comes to school on test day, but refuses to take the test. Other parents will send a letter to school on test day or in advance, stating that their child should not be required to take the test. In light of these opt-out requests, the Ohio Department of Education…

Voting on matters of business that come before the board is an important duty for school board members. Whenever possible, board members are encouraged to take a stand and cast a vote. An abstention is considered as a “not voting,” which means that it’s neither a vote in favor nor a vote against the motion being made. Sometimes, an abstention makes the difference in whether a motion receives the required number of votes to pass. 

There may be times when an abstention is required by law. For…

Did you know that the online Ohio Sex Offender Registry has some newer features that can help you and your staff keep track of offenders added to the database in your area via email alerts and a "reverse lookup" that can link unidentified phone numbers or email addresses with registered sex offenders?  

To register for email alerts, visit the OAG website and click on the "Register for email alerts" tab and add your…

As a result of House Bill (HB) 487, community (AKA charter) school and STEM school students may now participate in extracurricular activities in certain school districts under RC 3313.537. The changes became effective on September 17, 2014. 

What are the changes?

A student enrolled in a community or STEM school must be given, by the superintendent of the district in which the student is entitled to attend school, the opportunity to participate in an extracurricular activity at the district school in which the student would otherwise be assigned to attend under RC…