EdLawConnect Blog

On January 19, 2016, the California Attorney General issued Opinion No. 14-1203, which concluded the Brown Act’s online agenda-posting requirement for regular meetings is not necessarily violated if the local agency’s website experiences technical difficulties (e.g., power failure, cyber-attack, or other third-party interference) that cause the agenda to become inaccessible to the public for a ...

Whether the ability to work a certain number of hours in a shift is an “essential function” of a position is a factual determination that must be made on a case-by-case basis. In a recent decision, a federal district court found an employee with a disability presented sufficient evidence to create a question for a jury as to whether the employer could have shortened her shift as a reasonable accommodation.

Materials distributed during our Education Law Technology Symposium in September 2015 included pending federal and state bills, the passage of which would affect colleges and universities, community colleges, and K-12 school districts in California. Governor Brown signed into law two bills mentioned in those materials, Senate Bill 570 and Assembly Bill 964, which relate to obligations of agencies in ...

On December 14, 2015, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a “final interim rule” for registering unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, just in time for the holiday season.  (Note: Although the new rule goes into effect on December 21, 2015, the FAA has also created a second “notice and comment” period, and claims it may modify the interim ...

On August 13, 2015, the IRS issued Announcement 2015-22, addressing the tax treatment of identity protection services for data breach victims. The Announcement states that when victims receive free identity protection services from an organization that suffered a data breach, the IRS will not assert the value of the identity protection services is includible in the victim’s gross income ...

Your employee is diagnosed with epilepsy after suffering a seizure at work. After a period of leave, the employee is cleared by a physician to return to work. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), you must bring the employee back to work and provide reasonable accommodations to enable him to perform the essential functions of his job, as long as the employee does not impose a significant risk of ...

The California Legislature recently made significant changes to the California Comprehensive Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Act (Education Code § 51930 et seq.).  Under Assembly Bill 329 (Weber), which was signed into law by Governor Brown on October 1, 2015, the Act will be renamed the “California Healthy Youth Act” when it takes effect on January 1, 2016.

The more noteworthy ...

Meetings of school boards, city councils, county boards of supervisors, community college boards and other “legislative bodies” are open to the public, with minor exceptions, under the Ralph M. Brown Act. Members of the public have access to these meetings and may use them as a forum to criticize the work of the legislative bodies. The law protects this type of criticism as a constitutional right.  But what ...

As the business world becomes more digital and mobile, the swords and shields used in litigation often take the form of electronically stored information. We frequently advise clients and remind opposing counsel to preserve all documents, including electronically stored information, when they reasonably know that litigation might ensue or as soon a potential claim is identified. (See In re Napster, Inc ...

On September 21, 2015, the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice (collectively, the “Departments”) released an English Learner Tool Kit—a resource to assist state and local educational agencies meet their legal obligations to English Learners (ELs) and ensure ELs have access to a quality public education.  The release of the EL Tool Kit comes at a time when over five million students (one-tenth of ...