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Even under normal circumstances, prom season requires school officials to navigate a dance floor filled with legal landmines. This year, the challenges are heightened by COVID-19. With the recent loosening of gathering limits, school officials are considering whether prom is possible this year and, if so, what it might look like. Here are a few new (and old) considerations.
MDHHS, Local Government, and Health Department Orders
On March 19, 2021, the Michigan Department...
As the school year winds down, we remind school officials of Revised School Code Section 1236 and how it affects a substitute teacher’s rights to continued employment, compensation, and fringe benefits. The Michigan Court of Appeals has interpreted “substitute teacher” to mean, for purposes of Section 1236, a teacher who serves in place of a regular teacher. Notably, this interpretation does not apply to a substitute teacher retained through a third-party contractor.
Under Section...
As the end of the school year approaches, school officials must follow applicable timelines and procedures if they wish to non-renew a probationary teacher’s contract, which apply notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic. Failing to comply with the required timelines and procedures may result in an unintended contract extension or a teacher acquiring tenure.
Probationary Period
Typically, teachers hired on or after July 19, 2011, must serve an initial five-year...
As part of our service to retainer clients, Thrun Law Firm typically hosts annual client spring seminars across the state. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are doing something different this year: Tuesdays with Thrun. Our firm will offer a series of 1‑hour webinars on Tuesdays this spring at no charge to our retainer clients. Each webinar will conclude with an attorney Q & A panel to address pertinent client questions.
Webinars will be held on the following dates and...
The Internal Revenue Code’s (IRC) arbitrage rules govern how tax-exempt bond proceeds, as well as revenues for debt service payments, may be invested. Generally, the investment earnings on tax-exempt bond proceeds that earn a higher interest rate than the interest rate on the original bond issue are called “arbitrage” earnings. Bond issuers may be limited in the arbitrage they can earn and keep without the related bonds becoming taxable.
When a school district levies taxes to make...
Have the collective bargaining agreements with your school’s labor unions been reviewed recently? Are they consistent with recent legal changes with respect to the school calendar, prohibited bargaining subjects, health insurance contribution limits, and the Affordable Care Act’s prerequisites for cash-in-lieu distributions? Teacher collective bargaining agreements are multi-million dollar agreements – generally 50-60% of school costs. Personnel costs are usually 80‑85% of a school’s budget...
On August 14, 2020, new Title IX regulations went into effect, significantly changing schools’ obligations when addressing sex-based harassment and discrimination complaints. Those regulations include a sweeping overhaul to the Title IX investigation process, including a requirement to draft a comprehensive investigation report. In response to client inquiries, Thrun Law Firm will conduct a Title IX Investigator Workshop on Tuesday, March 16, from 1:00–3:00 p.m.
This workshop is...
Eligibility for extended school year (ESY) services for students with disabilities is likely to be a topic of significant discussion in many IEP Team meetings. But IEP Teams should not assume ESY is required simply due to the past 12 months of COVID-related school closures and remote or hybrid learning modes. Instead, decisions about whether and what type of ESY is required to provide a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to a student should be based on data and a student’s individual...
Public Act 295 of 2020, effective March 24, 2021, amends parts of the Sex Offenders Registration Act (SORA). Most significantly for schools, the amendments eliminate the “student safety zone,” which was defined as “the area that lies 1,000 feet or less from school property.” Before the amendments, SORA prohibited registered sex offenders from living, working, or loitering in that zone.
The amendments were enacted to align with a series of court rulings from Doe v Snyder. In...
On January 22, 2021, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued an order effectively extending the indoor gathering limitations through February 21, 2021. Although the order lists certain exceptions to the indoor gathering limitations, no exception allows in-person school board meetings indoors. Consequently, school boards must hold indoor meetings through electronic means only during that time.
Back on December 23, 2020, Governor Whitmer signed Public Act 254 of...