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).
On February 22, the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice withdrew their previous joint guidance that provided information for schools on the departments’ interpretation of the rights of and protections for transgender students under Title IX.
Earlier today, a unanimous United States Supreme Court issued its decision in the case of Fry v. Napoleon Community Schools. The Court overturned the lower courts’ decisions and remanded the case to the appeals court to determine whether the plaintiffs’ suit is about a denial of a FAPE rather than discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Sec. 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
The Ohio Joint Study Committee on Drug Use Prevention Education was created last August by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, House Speaker Clifford Rosenberger and former Senate President Keith Faber with the goal of studying drug use prevention education in Ohio schools.
Governor Kasich’s biennial budget for FY 2018-19 was introduced on Wednesday as House Bill 49. The full text—all 3512 pages of it—is available here.
There has already been a lot of discussion about the provisions in the bill that are of interest to school districts and educational service centers. But for those who would like to see the specific proposed language on some key topics, here are the line numbers in the current bill:
Earlier this week, the National School Boards Association issued a publication entitled “Data Security for Schools: A Legal and Policy Guide for School Boards.” The guide offers school boards information to help them ensure that their districts have sound policies and practices in place to protect all the data created, collected and stored as part of school operations and to respond appropriately in the event of a data breach.
OSBA’s legal assistance fund (LAF) supports school districts that are defending legal challenges with the potential to affect public schools statewide. Earlier this month, the LAF board of trustees voted to approve an amicus brief in support of the Delaware Area Career Center (DACC) in the case Delaware Joint Vocational School District v. Testa.
Yesterday, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) released its draft overview of Ohio’s State Plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
ODE developed the draft overview after a year of meetings and outreach to Ohio’s educators, parents and community members about the state’s educational system. According to Superintendent of Public Instruction Paolo DeMaria, the plan’s major policy points include:
