The United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) recently released guidance as part of an effort to aid schools in prioritizing a return to in‑person learning.  Highlights of the guidance include the following: Question: My school district is phasing in its return to in‑person learning.  Is it required to prioritize a return to […]

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit delivered an opinion earlier this month in a case concerning the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Kirilenko-Ison, et al. v. Bd of Ed. Danville Indep. Sch., No. 19-5767, 2020 WL 5269818 (6th Cir. Sept. 4, 2020).    The case involved two nurses, Bauder-Smith and Kirilenko-Ison, who […]

  The State of New York and the City School District of New York filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York challenging the new Title IX regulations on a wide variety of procedural and substantive grounds.  For relief, plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction, preventing the enforcement […]

  Governors across the country abruptly closed schools with little or no notice last spring.  Educators responded heroically: creating programs for regular and special education students on the fly.  Those in leadership positions reacted predictably: avoiding controversy by declining to waive special education procedural and substantive requirement that were impossible to meet under the circumstances.  […]

  Late last month, the Sixth Circuit issued a split 2‑1 decision in Doe v Oberlin College.  The case involved a student (Doe) who was expelled for allegedly sexually assaulting a female student (Roe).  After Doe was expelled, he claimed that the college had discriminated against him on the basis of sex.  In a nutshell, […]

  In 2019, we summarized a Michigan Court of Appeals case in which a student was injured at her bus stop when she was struck by a private vehicle.  The case revolved around whether the bus driver and the School District (Montague Area Public Schools) could be held liable under the theory that the bus […]

  The Court of Appeals recently released its decision in Davis v Jackson Pub Sch, an unpublished case pertaining to the Whistleblowers’ Protection Act (WPA).  Davis was a veteran teacher who “had received exemplary evaluations for her performance, and she had received an evaluation rating of ‘highly effective’ for the [2014‑2015] school year.”  But, in […]

  On June 30, 2020, the United States Supreme Court struck down a broadly-worded and strictly-enforced “no-aid” provision of Montana’s constitution, interpreted to prohibit aid to religious schools. Espinoza v Montana Dept of Revenue, 591 US ___ (2020). Espinoza arose from a Montana statute that provided tuition assistance to parents who chose to send their […]

  On June 30, 2020, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued its opinion in B.L. v Mahanoy Area Sch Dist, a case originating in Pennsylvania.  There, a disgruntled cheerleader, who had tried out for the varsity squad but was kept on the junior varsity squad, posted a “snap” on Snapchat containing the caption “fuck […]

  On June 15, 2020, the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in Bostock v Clayton County, Georgia.  Bostock involved three cases from different parts of the country: in the first case, an employee was terminated after he joined a gay recreational softball league; in the second case, an employee was terminated after […]