On January 17, 2019, the United States Department of Education announced the launch of a new program designed to curb the inappropriate use of restraint and seclusion on children with disabilities within the nation’s school systems. The program has three components: (1) free appropriate public education compliance reviews for children with disabilities, (2) improved quality […]
On January 14, 2019, Governor Mike DeWine began his first day in office by issuing Executive Order 2019-05D, maintaining the anti-gender identity and expression discrimination position taken by Governor John Kasich less than a month earlier (which we blogged about here). This executive order may have come as a surprise to some as Governor DeWine […]
House Bill 66 creates mandatory notification procedures when a student is absent from a public school. The Act requires all public schools to make at least one attempt to notify the parents, guardians, or caretakers of a student who is absent from school without a legitimate excuse within the first 120 minutes of the start […]
On January 2, 2019, the Ohio Department of Education released its plan “to lift aspirations, create hope and excitement, guide development of state-level education policies and promote high-quality educational practices across the state.” Each Child Our Future Ohio Strategic Plan For Education: 2019-2024, at 4 (#EachChildOurFuture). The plan includes ten strategies to help increase the […]
On January 1, 2019, as required by the Ohio Constitution, the Ohio minimum wage rate increased to $8.55 from $8.30 for non-tipped employees and $4.30 from $4.15 for tipped employees. These rates apply to any business with gross annual receipts exceeding $314,000 per year. Smaller businesses or employees aged 14 to 15 are subject to […]
In the case of Doe v. Skaggs, 2018-Ohio-5402, an Ohio appellate court held that mandatory child abuse reporting statutes do not strip school boards or school employees of statutory immunity when the school employees had no knowledge of the child abuse prior to the parents’ discovery of the abuse. In this case, a student developed […]