EdLawConnect Blog

The California Legislature recently made significant changes to the California Comprehensive Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Act (Education Code § 51930 et seq.).  Under Assembly Bill 329 (Weber), which was signed into law by Governor Brown on October 1, 2015, the Act will be renamed the “California Healthy Youth Act” when it takes effect on January 1, 2016.

The more noteworthy ...

Meetings of school boards, city councils, county boards of supervisors, community college boards and other “legislative bodies” are open to the public, with minor exceptions, under the Ralph M. Brown Act. Members of the public have access to these meetings and may use them as a forum to criticize the work of the legislative bodies. The law protects this type of criticism as a constitutional right.  But what ...

As the business world becomes more digital and mobile, the swords and shields used in litigation often take the form of electronically stored information. We frequently advise clients and remind opposing counsel to preserve all documents, including electronically stored information, when they reasonably know that litigation might ensue or as soon a potential claim is identified. (See In re Napster, Inc ...

On September 21, 2015, the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice (collectively, the “Departments”) released an English Learner Tool Kit—a resource to assist state and local educational agencies meet their legal obligations to English Learners (ELs) and ensure ELs have access to a quality public education.  The release of the EL Tool Kit comes at a time when over five million students (one-tenth of ...

On September 21, 2015, Governor Brown approved legislation expanding, for the first time in over 20 years, the rights of student members of school district governing boards. Beginning January 1, 2016, Senate Bill 532 will set a 60-day time limit for a board to respond to a petition from students to add a student trustee, and will require a formal process in the event a governing board wishes to remove the student ...

On June 30, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association - a case that challenges California’s “agency fee” laws.  While this case will not be heard and decided until next year, public sector unions in California are already mobilizing a response to this potential threat to their financial coffers.

“Agency fees” or as unions prefer to call ...

As one means of managing the cost of a data security breach (when confidential electronically stored information is disclosed), public and private organizations may purchase “cyber insurance” policies. The purchaser seeks to limit the substantial costs involved in investigating and remedying a breach. However, such policies (which are relatively new to the marketplace) have considerable ...