News from Thrun Law

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 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...

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...

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...