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For a school that wants to borrow money, obtaining “qualified status” each year from the Michigan Department of Treasury is critical. Before a school issues most types of debt, it must either have qualified status or Treasury’s prior approval.
The costlier and more time-consuming prior approval process often causes significant delays, which can be a hurdle if the need to borrow is unexpected. Treasury has up to 30 business days (i.e., six calendar weeks) to evaluate a prior approval...
As noted in the previous article, on September 28, 2020, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights provided guidance on face-covering requirements for students with disabilities. On October 20, 2020, State Superintendent Michael Rice issued a memorandum consistent with OCR’s guidance. School officials should understand the scope of both guidance documents.
Neither OCR’s guidance nor Dr. Rice’s memorandum prohibit schools from requesting medical verification...
On September 28, 2020, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) issued two Q&A guidance documents on commonly asked special education and Section 504 questions in light of COVID-19.
“Implementation of IDEA Part B Provision of Services in the COVID-19 Environment” reminds state educational agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) that “no matter...
On September 30, 2020, Governor Whitmer signed into law Public Act 165, amending the State School Aid Act (SSAA). Our September 30, 2020 E-Blast explained certain urgent aspects of this legislation. This article discusses other important provisions of PA 165, including additional funding for increased enrollment, local produce purchasing, student meal debt, teacher retention, and funding to create a “Michigan Learning Channel.”
Increased Enrollment
New SSAA Section...
Revised School Code Section 1613 allows a school district or ISD to authorize local taxing jurisdictions to levy half or all school taxes on July 1 by filing a summer tax resolution with the local taxing jurisdictions. If your district currently has a summer tax levy and would like it to continue in 2021, your district’s board of education must adopt a resolution and file a copy of that resolution with each city and township within your district’s boundaries on or before December 31, 2020...
In our June 25, 2020 School Law Notes, we addressed the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) “Letter of Impending Enforcement Action” issued against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC). In that letter, OCR determined that CIAC’s policy of allowing transgender students who were “biologically male” to compete on female athletic teams and in female athletic events violated Title IX by discriminating against women.
In those same...
On September 8, 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated its FAQs on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and COVID-19. The guidance addresses topics such as employee health screening, medical information confidentiality, and reasonable accommodations. It is available here:
...
On August 26, 2020, MDE’s Office of Special Education (MDE-OSE) released return-to-school guidance (Guidance), which is available here:
https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/ReturntoSchool_699307_7.pdf
This long-awaited Guidance addresses “special education priority topics” for fall 2020 and contains FAQs addressing obligations...
As discussed in our August 19, 2020 E-Blast, Public Act 149 of 2020 (PA 149) requires schools to administer at least two “benchmark assessments” to students in grades K-8 during the 2020-21 school year. On August 21, 2020, MDE released a memo providing additional guidance on these assessments.
Under PA 149, a benchmark assessment is any of the following:
Resolving a decades-long insurance dispute, the Michigan Supreme Court recently clarified that subcontractor mistakes damaging an insured’s work product may trigger commercial general liability insurance policy coverage. Michigan courts have historically denied coverage for damage claims related to a contractor's own work, permitting recovery only for damage to another’s property. Those rulings significantly limited insurance claims for a contractor’s defective work.
Now, per ...