The Legal Ledger

Attorneys can earn 5.0 CLE credits at the School Law Workshop presented by the Ohio Council of School Board Attorneys on Tuesday, Nov. 10.  The workshop will take place in Rooms C 210-212.  Sessions include:

• School district and municipal collaboration
• Hot topics in public records law
• When passion becomes a problem
• Religion and public schools
• Unpacking Title IX: K-12 compliance issues

OSBA attorneys will also be presenting several sessions at Capital Conference.  Sara Craven Clark, director of legal services, will…

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) released a resource guide to help school districts better support undocumented youth. According to DOE, the aim of the guide is to help educators and school staff "support the academic success of undocumented youth, to debunk misconceptions by clarifying the legal rights of undocumented students as well as sharing helpful information about financial aid options open to undocumented students."

The guide includes resources aimed at high school and…

Among the many provisions impacting school districts in the biennium budget (HB 64) that took effect on September 29, 2015 was a significant change to the property disposal process for school districts. 

Pursuant to newly-enacted Revised Code Section (RC) 3313.413, school districts seeking to dispose of real property must now first offer the property for sale to the governing authorities of high-performing community schools and any newly established community schools that are implementing a community school model that has a track…

The Ohio Supreme Court recently ruled on the Stewart v. Lockland case (Slip Opinion No. 2015-Ohio-3839), which is a positive decision for school districts. In its decision, the court upheld the lower court’s decision that Ohio’s Open Meetings Act did not require the district to hold a public pretermintaion hearing for Adam Stewart. 

The Ohio Department of Education notified the school district that district employees falsely reported student-attendance data in order to improve their state report card for the 2010-2011 school year. At that time, Stewart served as a data…

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 …

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…