Blogs

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 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…

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…

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,…

House Bill 290, which became effective March 23, 2015, amended some of the language found in RC 3313.77 in regards to the “use of school premises for public meetings and entertainment.”

Any definition referring to a schoolhouse, schoolroom, school grounds or school property is now referred to as school premises. School premises is defined as all indoor and outdoor structures, facilities, land owned, rented, or leased by a school or district (RC 3313.77). Upon a request and payment of a reasonable fee, a school board must allow its school premises to be used when the…

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.…

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…

Last week, the Ohio House of Representative and Ohio Senate took action to develop a plan that will provide four additional calamity days to school districts.  Here’s a summary of some of the key provisions of the bill, as well as the answers to a few of the more frequently asked questions we’ve received:

•  Additional calamity days.  The bill provides four additional calamity days for the 2013-2014 school year.  These additional days may be granted to districts only after they have made up four of their contingency days and only after the district’s…

As of October 11, 2013, HB 14 has limited the circumstances in which a board of education may withhold the grades and credits of students who have failed to pay fees and charges. Under the newly amended provisions of RC 3313.642, boards of education are prohibited from withholding the grades, credits, official transcripts, diplomas, IEPs, or 504 plans of a student for the nonpayment of fees for materials used during the course of instruction if:

-a complaint has been filed in juvenile court alleging that a student is an abused, neglected, or dependent child; or

-a student has…

On June 30, 2013, House Bill (HB) 59, also known as the budget bill, was signed by Governor Kasich. Effective September 29, 2013, the bill added a new topic to the topics that may be discussed during an executive session of a public body.

Under current law, RC 121.22 (G) provides seven topics, six of which are applicable to school boards, which allow public bodies to remove themselves from public view to engage in discussion regarding certain matters.

As a result of HB 59, school boards will be able to discuss an eighth topic during executive session. This new topic deals…