EdLawConnect Blog

On August 29, 2016, a California Court of Appeal backed away from an earlier a decision that employers must accommodate employees based on their association with individuals with a disability. (Castro-Ramirez v. Dependable Highway Express (Aug. 29, 2016) 2016 WL 45066089.) Before the court’s groundbreaking holding in April 2016, as reported in this post, no court had held that the Fair Employment ...

New regulations from the U.S. Department of Labor require employers (public and private) to post a revised Federal Minimum Wage poster and a revised Federal Employee Polygraph Act poster effective August 1, 2016.

The Federal Minimum Wage Poster now includes a section describing the rights of nursing mothers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. It also discusses independent contractor misclassification ...

At the May 25, 2016, State Allocation Board (SAB) meeting, the SAB authorized, for the first time ever, the imposition of Level III Developer Fees finding that no state funds were available for new construction projects.  On May 26, 2016, in response to California Building Industry Association (CBIA) filing a Petition for Writ of Mandate challenging the SAB’s finding that state funds are not available for ...

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) was enacted in 1991 to lessen the impact of calling practices that invade consumer privacy and threaten public safety.  One such intrusive calling practice is known as a “robocall.”  Robocalls are made either with an automated telephone dialing system (autodialer) or with a prerecorded or artificial voice.  The TCPA and its implementing rules prohibit ...

Earlier this year the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published an official Final Rule to amend the Regulations and the accompanying Interpretive Guidance implementing Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  This Final Rule affects all wellness programs that include disability-related inquiries and/or medical examinations and requires that all health programs must be ...

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 made unprecedented changes to health benefit plans. The most sweeping ACA provisions took effect in 2014; other provisions have been delayed from their original implementation target dates. The Internal Revenue Service, the agency responsible for enforcing many of the ACA’s tax implications, has issued various regulations under the ACA. The IRS regulations are ...

California’s Gun-Free School Zone Act (Penal Code section 626.9) makes possessing a firearm in a school zone punishable as a crime.  Criminal liability attaches unless the individual (1) has obtained the permission of the school district superintendent or equivalent school authority to carry a firearm or (2) falls within the exemptions under the statute.

The statute does not limit the ability of a school ...

On June 7, 2016, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) provided the public with a “First Look” at the data gathered during its biennial Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) for the 2013-2014 school year.

In its accompanying press release, OCR highlighted data points that reveal persistent disparities in educational equity and opportunity for students across several key ...

On April 6, 2016, a California Court of Appeal determined that under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) an employer has an obligation to provide a reasonable accommodation for an employee’s association with a disabled individual. (Castro-Ramirez v. Dependable Highway Express, Inc. (2016) 246 Cal.App.4th 180.)  To date, no other court has decided that the FEHA requires an employer to ...

At the May 25, 2016, State Allocation Board meeting, the State Allocation Board authorized, for the first time ever, the imposition of Level III Developer Fees.  Developer Fees or school impact fees are paid by property owners and developers to mitigate the impacts of new construction on the school district’s facilities.  There are three levels of Developer Fees, commonly referred to as Level I, II, and III.  ...