EdLawConnect Blog

In the past, the IDEA’s exhaustion requirement has been applied in various parts of the United States to routinely bar lawsuits for injunctive relieve and/or money damages against school districts and their employees for violations of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (“Section 504”) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), when administrative due process procedures were ...

Senate Bill 792 (“SB 792”), which went into effect on September 1, 2016, requires employees and volunteers of day care centers (including preschools) licensed by the California Department of Social Services (“CDSS”) to be vaccinated for influenza, pertussis, and measles. The author of SB 792, Senator Mendoza, captured the legislative intent of the bill in the Comments to the Senate Bill Analysis:

Senate Bill 1072, approved by the Governor in September 2016, brings to fruition efforts to guard against students being left unattended on a schoolbus. (Statutes of 2016, ch. 721.) By the 2018-2019 school year, schoolbuses and other qualifying vehicles must be equipped with an alarm system that essentially forces bus drivers to check the bus at the end of a route to make certain all children are off the ...

In early January 2017, the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, established under the Obama Administration in 2014, released “Preventing and Addressing Campus Sexual Misconduct: A Guide for University and College Presidents, Chancellors, and Senior Administrators.” The Guide, which is available online (click here), offers insight and practical recommendations in six ...

With studies now showing that “sudden cardiac arrest” is one of the leading causes of death for young people under the age of 25 and student-athletes at a greater risk due to more frequent physical exertion, school districts have been looking for ways to protect student-athletes from physical harm and to reduce potential legal liability.  A new law now addresses this issue.

In the fall of 2016, the ...

California’s Gun-Free School Zone Act (Penal Code section 626.9) makes possessing a firearm in a school zone punishable as a crime.  Criminal liability attaches unless the individual (1) has obtained the permission of the school district superintendent or equivalent school authority to carry a firearm or (2) falls within the exemptions under the statute.

The statute does not limit the ability of a school ...

On June 7, 2016, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) provided the public with a “First Look” at the data gathered during its biennial Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) for the 2013-2014 school year.

In its accompanying press release, OCR highlighted data points that reveal persistent disparities in educational equity and opportunity for students across several key ...

Under Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations, sections 4600-4687, local educational agencies such as school districts must adopt procedures for resolving certain types of complaints, including allegations of unlawful discrimination, harassment, intimidation, bullying, and noncompliance with certain federal and state program requirements. These policies are known as “Uniform Complaint ...

On December 14, 2015, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a “final interim rule” for registering unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, just in time for the holiday season.  (Note: Although the new rule goes into effect on December 21, 2015, the FAA has also created a second “notice and comment” period, and claims it may modify the interim ...

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 ...