EdLawConnect Blog

The California Labor Commissioner has posted a template  pursuant to the new sick leave law, the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Family Act of 2014. As explained in our , the new law applies to employees who work at least 30 hours per calendar year and are not provided with sick leave under a collective bargaining agreement.  A poster describing the sick leave rights is required under amended Labor Code section 247.

Recently Governor Brown vetoed Assembly Bill 1550, which would have added 30 days to the already rigorous impasse procedures under the Educational Employee Relations Act (Government Code §§ 3540, et. seq.; “EERA”) impairing the ability of public employers to unilaterally implement a last, best, and final offer after completion of the statutory impasse process.

In these strained economic times, where governmental budgets can be stretched to their limits, public entities are often faced with unexpected financial exposure to claims and litigation.  Public entities can limit the scope of their exposure to monetary claims by simply adopting policies that shorten the time for presenting claims to a fraction of what California statutes of limitations would usually ...

California has adopted the Smarter Balanced Assessment System designed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, an organization formed to create assessments aligned to the Common Core academic content standards. This transition to the Common Core State Standards Initiative was initiated by Assembly Bill 484, signed by Governor Jerry Brown on October 2, 2013.

The Smarter Balanced Assessment ...

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (“Section 504”), through its implementing regulations in Subpart D, requires that students with disabilities have the opportunity to equally participate in extracurricular activities, including after school sports and interscholastic programs. The Section 504 regulations specifically outline a school district’s obligation to provide extracurricular activities in “such a manner as is necessary to afford students with a disability an equal opportunity for participation in such services and activities.” (34 C.F.R. 104.37(a)(1).)

School districts (and county offices of education and charter schools) can be liable for failing to address the bullying or harassment of a student with a disability.  Are you properly addressing and responding to complaints of bullying and harassment?

On September 29, 2014, Governor Brown approved a series of bills to protect against misuse or unauthorized release of students’ personal information. Assembly Bills 1442 and 1584 add privacy requirements to the Education Code for school districts using a program or third-party provider to gather or store personal student information. Senate Bill 1177 adds restrictions under the Business and Professions Code for Internet operators in possession of personally identifiable student information, so that private companies may now share in the responsibility to protect this information. The legislation goes into effect January 1, 2015.

The new law becomes operative on January 1, 2015.  Therefore, any lease leaseback project that is awarded after January 1, 2015, involves a projected expenditure of $1,000,000 or more, and uses any money from the Leroy F. Greene School Facilities Act of 1998 or any future state school construction bond must comply with the mandatory prequalification procedures found at Public Contract Code section 20111.6.

On September 18, 2014, Governor Brown signed AB 1581 which amended Education Code sections 17406 and 17407 (the lease leaseback statutes) to expressly provide that the mandatory prequalification requirements apply to the lease-leaseback delivery projects.  The mandatory prequalification requirements set forth in the new Public Contract Code section 20111.6 apply to any school district public works ...

On September 2, 2014, a California appellate court upheld an order requiring a college math professor to undergo a “fitness for duty examination” (“FFD”) based on behavior that his colleagues considered erratic and threatening in nature.  The court also rebuffed the efforts of the professor’s attorneys to interject themselves into the workplace dispute by placing conditions on the FFD.  The ...