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. 

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.

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. 

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 prov

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.

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.

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

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:

Employees and volunteers that direct, supervise, or coach a student activity program that involves athletics, routine or regular physical activity, or activities with health and safety considerations must obtain a pupil activity permit.  The Ohio Department of Education issued a recent reminder to begin the process for the application of pupil activity permits for coaches.

House Bill 153, which was passed on May 27, 2015, amended certain election dates. Under current law, presidential primaries are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March, unless otherwise noted by a municipal charter or county charter. HB 153 shifts the primary to the second Tuesday after the first Monday of the month. For 2016, this means that the presidential primary that was scheduled for March 8 will now take place on March 15.