The Legal Ledger

Yesterday, President Biden announced a national strategy aimed at combating COVID-19.

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) produced new documents to assist schools this week.

The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) has updated its online and blended learning guidance for the 2021-22 school year. The guidance now includes a new section in the FAQs on temporary online learning for closures due to COVID-19 outbreaks, as well as adding FAQs expanding guidance related to online learning and blended learning.

As the general election on Nov. 2 nears, boards of education are waiting to see who their fellow members may be come January. Here at the legal division of OSBA, we’re getting lots of questions about the upcoming election. Two of the areas we’re getting questions about are write-in candidates and filling vacancies if not enough candidates are running for election.

Starting with the 2021-22 school year, school districts must register with the Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) Safer Ohio School Tip Line or enter into an agreement with an anonymous reporting program of the district’s choosing.

On August 3, the U.S.

In the recently enacted biennial budget bill (Am. Sub. H.B.

On Wednesday, Governor DeWine signed HB 244 into law.

As the state of emergency has lifted and life is beginning to get back to normal, public meetings have reverted to pre-pandemic guidelines. For example, the Ohio legislature did not extend or make permanent a public board’s ability to conduct meetings in a virtual landscape. 

Last week, amid a flurry of opinions and other actions, the U.S. Supreme Court made a notable decision not to act when it declined to review Gloucester Cty. School District. v. Grimm, a 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision involving the rights of transgender students.