Last week, President Obama signed the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (“ESSA” or the “Act”) into law. The Act reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (“ESEA”). A bipartisan compromise bill, ESSA supersedes the controversial No Child Left Behind Act (“NCLB”). ESSA effectively replaces NCLB’s federal-centric, one-size-fits-all model of K-12 education reform and
The Federal Government Is Not Messing Around When It Comes To Title IX Compliance: What OCR’s University of Virginia Investigation Can Teach Us
Over the past several years, mainstream media has become increasingly fixated on issues of sexual violence on college campuses, with major state universities like the University of Montana, Michigan State University, the University of Virginia (UVA), and the University of California at San Diego receiving the brunt of the attention and corresponding criticism. The
Governor Brown Signs New Vaccination Bill, SB 277, Into Law
This blog post was authored by Stephanie Lowe and Alysha Stein-Manes
On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, Governor Brown signed into law a bill designed to require that California schoolchildren are fully vaccinated, regardless of their parents’ personal or religious beliefs. The bill applies to children enrolled in public or private day care, public school districts,
U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case Regarding the Constitutionality of Compulsory Union Fees
On June 30, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear an appeal in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association to answer the question of whether compulsory “agency shop” fees violate the First Amendment. An “agency shop” arrangement requires non-union member employees to pay compulsory fees as a condition of employment even if
Court Clarifies that Lease-Leaseback Arrangements Must be “Genuine”; and Simultaneously Creates Split among the Courts of Appeal on the Requirement for Validation Actions
In September 2012, Fresno USD’s governing board adopted a resolution authorizing the execution of lease-leaseback construction contracts without competitive bidding.
The lease-leaseback structure permits builder-financed construction. A school district leases real estate it owns to a construction firm for $1.00 per year and the contractor agrees to build new facilities on that real estate. This
Title IX and Sexual Violence in the Wake of the Failures of the Rolling Stone ‘A Rape on Campus’ Narrative: What All Educational Institutions Need to Know
In recent months, partially in reaction to several investigations initiated by the U.S. Department of Education’s (“DOE”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”), the news media has drawn attention to the prevalence of sexual violence on college campuses and scrutinized administrative responses to claims of such violence. The height of this attention arguably came in November
Campus Free Speech – A Review of Policies Can Avoid Litigation
It has been 50 years since the Free Speech Movement began at UC Berkeley in 1964, and approximately 40-50 years since near-riotous conditions overwhelmed college campuses in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. In our own time, it is about three years since the 2011 Occupy events and large-scale tuition protests erupted on college campuses.
AB 1469’s Newly Enacted Fix For CalSTRS Unfunded Liability Means Increased Contribution Rates for Employers, Employees, and the State
This blog post is authored by Michael Youril
Every employer who has employees covered by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (“CalSTRS”) is aware of the massive funding gap for the CalSTRS pension fund, and the need to stabilize funding for CalSTRS before the pension fund goes broke. At this time, the CalSTRS Defined Benefit
Judge Holds California Teacher Tenure Laws Unconstitutional
This blog post was authored by Sharde C. Thomas.
On June 10, 2014, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge issued a decision holding California’s teacher tenure protections unconstitutional in the case of Vergara v. California, Case No. BC484642. Students Matter, an education non-profit organization, filed the lawsuit on behalf of nine public and
Disciplining Public School Students For Speech: First Amendment Implications
Many student discipline matters in public schools involve speech, be it joking threats by the student, outrageous bullying on social media, epithets or hate speech, or clothing containing messages or symbols that violate school rules. Because they involve speech, these discipline cases can raise substantial First Amendment concerns.
Some view student speech as less valuable