If the last few days are any indication, it promises to be a busy season for the General Assembly, particularly at the Committee on Education. Multiple bills have been raised in both the Senate and the House pertaining to education of school-age children, and most of these have been referred to the Education committee. While […]
The Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations recently issued a decision, Region 16 Board of Education, Decision No. 4270 (2007), in which it held that a unilateral change in the workload of Special Education Teachers constituted a prohibited practice. In doing so, the Board created an exception to the general rule that a unit wide fixed practice […]
In a recent decision, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals (Illinois) has upheld the dismissal of a school district’s lawsuit challenging certain provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) on the grounds that since NCLB was enacted after the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the later-enacted NCLB provisions would trump any conflicting requirements in […]
In a decision rendered recently by the American Arbitration Association, a AAA Arbitrator has ruled that a board of education had just cause to terminate a custodian with a relatively unblemished record for repeatedly leaving work early and recording on their time sheets that they had worked their full shift. The case involved two evening shift […]
On January 28, 2008, President Bush signed into law H.R. 4986, the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2008 (“NDAA”). Section 585 of the NDAA amends the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (“FMLA”). The NDAA provides two new types of FMLA leave to employees with family members serving in the military: 1. Caregiver Leave: Permits […]
On May 23, 2007, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) issued guidance on the treatment of employees with “caregiver responsibilities.” While the federal discrimination statutes do not directly prohibit discrimination against “caregivers,” the new EEOC guidance does note that discrimination against caregivers that is grounded in a federally protected class, such as sex or disability, can […]
Do you know Dr. JoAnn Freiberg? If you are looking for resources to help you deal with issues related to bullying and improving school climate, and you haven’t already tried calling her, that might be a good place to start. Dr. Freiberg presented to the Education Law Committee of the Connecticut Bar Association last night, […]
In 2004, the IDEA was amended to provide for the possibility that school districts and state educational agencies might be able to collect attorney’s fees from parents and parent attorneys if the due process complaint or subsequent litigation was found to be “frivolous, unreasonable, or without foundation”. Apparently, the courts have found one case that […]
Do you have students placed in out-of-state residential (boarding) schools by parents? If so, this OSEP guidance letter may be of interest to you, particularly if some of those students are in Massachusetts and the state or the school has previously sent the parents back to you for evaluation if there was a potential special education issue. […]
Have you heard from some parent advocates that “there is no IEP” for a special education student unless the parent has agreed to the plan proposed by the school district? A recent ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reaffirms that an IEP does, in fact, “exist” as a legally […]
