In Houston Community College System v. Wilson, the United States Supreme Court held that a public body’s verbal censure of a fellow board member did not violate the board member’s First Amendment rights. The censure followed...more
4/6/2022
/ Appeals ,
Article III ,
Board of Trustees ,
Censures ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Open Meetings Act ,
Public Entities ,
Retaliation ,
Reversal ,
Standing
On January 10, 2022, teachers will be able to begin submitting applications to the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) to participate in TRS’s new Supplemental Savings Plan (SSP) which is a tax-deferred compensation...more
Last week TRS published Employer Bulletin 22-15 on its Supplemental Savings Plan (SSP), a new SSP Employer Participation Agreement, and a form of resolution for adoption by school boards to approve the Participation...more
Earlier this week, TRS issued an Employer Bulletin and a post in the Employer/Supplemental Savings Plan portion of its website regarding employer participation in implementation of the Plan. We are reviewing the new...more
Governor Pritzker has ordered a vaccine mandate for all teachers and staff at pre-K-12 schools, as well as students and personnel at higher education institutions. Under the Executive Order, all pre-K-12 school personnel must...more
8/30/2021
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Critical Infrastructure Sectors ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Essential Workers ,
Executive Orders ,
Health and Safety ,
Infectious Diseases ,
ISBE ,
Private Schools ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Public Schools ,
State Contractors ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
Since our last alert on the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System’s Supplemental Savings Plan (SSP), we have submitted to TRS, in consultation with IASA and IASBO, proposed changes to the TRS’ SSP document to address the...more
Since our previous alert regarding the Teachers’ Retirement System’s Supplemental Savings Plan, we have had productive discussions with many business managers, IASA, IASBO, and TRS about problems with the Plan and the...more
Earlier last week, the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System sent out forms and instructions for its new Supplemental Savings Plan. Essentially, the Plan is a program for the deferral of income taxes on a portion of the...more
As promised, following our October 29 alert we more closely examined the conflict between the Governor’s order delaying basketball to Spring and the IHSA’s decision to proceed as scheduled in November. Our review identified a...more
Along with every one of our school district clients who are members of the Illinois High School Association, we are trying to sort out the conflict between the Governor’s action on Tuesday of this week to postpone high school...more
COVID-19 saliva tests have been used as one tool to slow the spread of coronavirus—notably on college campuses. Soon, several saliva tests will be available to K-12 schools. The availability of such tests prompts several...more
Section 50.100 of the ISBE teacher evaluation regulations requires that teachers who are to be evaluated during the upcoming school term be notified that they will be evaluated and provided with certain information regarding...more
We understand that at least one school district insurance cooperative has informed its member school districts that the liability coverage carried by the cooperative excludes coverage for liability claims related to COVID-19....more
On Friday, June 12, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed Public Act 101-640,?which, among other things, amends the Open Meetings Act to allow public bodies to hold virtual board meetings without the physical presence of a...more
On May 23, the Illinois General Assembly passed Senate Bill 2135, which in part amended the Open Meetings Act to permit, and set conditions for, conducting board meetings by audio or video conference without the physical...more
On August 27, 2019, Governor Pritzker signed into law Public Act 101-0591, which added Section 24A-5.5 to the School Code. Section 24A-5.5 requires school districts to create an appeals process for teachers who receive...more
We are aware that sample resolutions suspending policies and granting superintendents extraordinary powers during the Governor’s stay-home order are circulating among school boards. On March 23, for example, the Illinois...more
As we reported at the time, in 2015 the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) issued non-regulatory guidance regarding the application of Section 24-14 of the Illinois School Code to teacher resignations. After amendments...more
Last month, the Illinois Supreme Court granted a petition for leave to appeal the Illinois Appellate Court’s decision in Dynak v. Board of Education of Wooddale School District 7, 2019 IL App (2d) 180551, which held that a...more
10/24/2019
/ Appeals ,
Employment Litigation ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Holidays ,
IL Supreme Court ,
Leave of Absence ,
Motion for Leave ,
Right to Restrict ,
School Districts ,
Sick Leave ,
Teachers ,
Work Restrictions
On June 5, the Governor signed Public Act 101-0010 which, among other things, deleted the TRS 3% excess salary cap and revived the 6% cap. ...more
On the heels of a movement fueled by the Illinois teachers unions, the Illinois House and Senate passed a bill, Senate Bill 1814, which includes a House Amendment that will repeal the current 3% salary cap for Teachers...more
As we discussed in an alert in December, with PERA’s full implementation on September 1, 2016, new tenure rules are in effect in Illinois. ...more
On June 13, 2014, the Governor signed House Bill 5546 expanding the recall provisions of Senate Bill 7. The new legislation is effective July 1, 2014 and extends limited recall rights to honorably dismissed (“RIFed”) teachers...more
On January 1, 2014, legislative changes made by Public Act 98-0513 (Act) to the tenure, layoff and impasse bargaining process originally set out in Senate Bill 7 will go into effect.
- Tenure Portability. The Act...more