The Legal Ledger

One of the scariest, yet all-too-common, mishaps involving e-mail is when you hit “send,” but it zips out to the wrong person. More often than not, you immediately realize what you just did. You feel helpless, embarrassed and angry (that there is not an “un-send” key). Depending on the contents of the e-mail, you may even wonder if there are going to be any legal consequences for your gaffe. Luckily, a recent court decision helps to address the legal aspects, although it may do nothing to assuage your personal remorse.

In a unanimous decision issued yesterday, the Supreme Court of Ohio upheld the constitutionality of a school district’s searches of a student’s bags. In State v.

The Ohio Ethics law requires certain elected officials, candidates for elected offices, public employees and appointees to public positions to annually file a financial disclosure statement with the Ohio Ethics Commission.

Teacher licensure is a topic that often causes confusion. As a result, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) has made an effort to create and share resources to help address that confusion. Just this week, Early Learning hosted a webinar providing guidance on Ohio’s Licensure for Teachers.

In the April OSBA Journal, the ‘According to Law’ article discussed nepotism restrictions. The article’s focus was on Ohio Revised Code (RC) Section 2921.42(A)(1), which prohibits any public official from authorizing the employment of a family member or using his or her position to secure authorization of a family member’s employment. However, we’ve received some questions since then on superintendents making employment recommendations for family members.

June 1 is the deadline for providing written notice to a teacher that the board does not intend to renew his or her contract.  But did you realize that May 1 is another critical deadline if a board is considering non-renewal for a teacher on a limited or extended limited contract?

Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court answered a question that it had deferred 35 years ago in its seminal opinion on education for children with disabilities—Board of Edn. of Hendrick Hudson Central School Dist. v. Rowley.

Ohio’s Open Meetings Act was enacted in 1975 as Ohio Revised Code Section (RC) 121.22. It, together with the Public Records Act (RC 149.43), is commonly referred to as “the Sunshine law.”

The Open Meetings Act’s basic purpose is to require public bodies, including boards of education to:

On Wednesday, the Ohio Supreme Court issued a decision in State ex rel. Delaware Joint Vocational School Dist. Bd. of Edn. v. Testa, Slip Opinion No. 2017-Ohio-796. The case, discussed in a Jan. 27 Legal Ledger post, involves a Renewal Levy passed in November 2015 by the Delaware Area Career Center (DACC).