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 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.

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.

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