EdLawConnect Blog

During the 2015-2016 school year, many school districts will be studying changes to their teacher evaluation instruments and proposing changes to teacher evaluation procedures at the bargaining table.  High profile litigation filed recently in Contra Costa County, alleging unlawful collective bargaining agreement language in thirteen districts across the state, has highlighted the issue during the ...

Summer is here, meaning some of your students will be taking on summer jobs. Although school may not be in session, all minors under 18 years of age (except in limited circumstances) must still have a permit to work. (Educ. Code § 49160, Labor Code § 1299.)

Work permits are issued for employment at a specified address. (Educ. Code §§ 49915, 49163). Permits must note the maximum number of hours a minor may work in a ...

Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird!  It’s a plane! No…it’s an unmanned aerial device!  No longer the stuff of science fiction, we hear nearly every day about new stories in the media involving unmanned aerial devices – aka drones:

• La Guardia-Bound Jet Has Close Call with Drone (May 29, 2015, NBCNEWYORK.com)
• Dallas Cowboys using drones to prepare players (May 27, 2015, CBS)
• Man detained for trying to fly ...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on May 6 a pilot program to digitally transmit documents related to employment discrimination charges. The program, called ACT Digital, will roll out in 11 of EEOC’s 53 offices by the end of this month. Only one of the pilot program locations, EEOC’s San Francisco office, is in California.

The EEOC enforces federal laws that prohibit ...

Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, at a time when the Internet had a relatively minor impact on the daily lives of Americans. Today, the Internet plays a critical role in personal, civic, educational, commercial, and professional life. Public agencies increasingly rely on the Internet as an efficient and comprehensive method of communicating with and providing services to ...

The use of social media by teachers and other school employees can have positive effects on the educational environment.  For example, social media can promote collaboration among teachers, and can provide an effective means of communication between teachers and parents.  However, educational employers have also found that access to social media during the workday can lead to decreased employee ...

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 ...

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.