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School Board Election Season Begins August 20, 2024

Thanks to a recent legislative change, the campaign season for those wishing to run for the school board now begins about a month earlier. Historically, the window set forth in the Election Code for filing nominating...more

ISBE Releases Guidance Document on Residential Placements

ISBE released a guidance document on residential placements, Guidance on PA 95-0844 and PA 95-0938. The document answers frequently asked questions related to residential placements of general education and special education...more

OCR Update: Shared Ancestry and Ethnicity Discrimination Guidance

In recent months, OCR has reached resolution agreements with a school district and two universities after investigating complaints of discrimination and harassment based on ancestry or ethnicity, including allegations...more

Final Title IX Rule on Sexual Harassment Released Today

Earlier this morning, the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights released its long-awaited final Title IX regulations on sexual harassment. These new regulations, which replace the 2020 rules, will take effect on...more

Title IX Final Rules: Anticipated Release Date Delayed (Again) to March 2024

We wanted to share a quick update that the final Title IX rules are now set to be released sometime in March 2024. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) just updated the final release dates on the...more

U.S. Supreme Court rejects Race-Conscious College Admissions Programs

On June 29, 2023, in the highly anticipated cases Students for Fair Admissions v. President & Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the...more

Checklist for End of COVID Health Emergency

Governor Pritzker’s disaster proclamation, declaring a public health emergency due to COVID-19, ends today, May 11, 2023. As a result, COVID-leave rights, and other rights contingent upon the Governor’s public health...more

OCR Releases Proposed Rule Updating Title IX on Student Eligibility for Athletics

On April 6, the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released its much-anticipated proposed Title IX rule on the eligibility of students for participation in athletic programs based on their gender identity....more

Revised Clear and Present Danger Reporting User Agreement Coming to Schools

In a previous alert, we announced that the Illinois State Police (ISP) would be transitioning to accepting clear and present danger reports from school officials through its online Law Enforcement Portal. To make reports on...more

Clear and Present Danger Law Enforcement Portal Administrator Agreement

The Illinois State Police (“ISP”) has rolled out its new Law Enforcement Portal where school administrators can submit reports of individuals who pose a clear and present danger. In order to use the portal, the ISP has shared...more

Trends in Due Process Litigation

Over the past year and a half, school districts have been inundated with high numbers of due process complaints and mediation requests. Looking back, it appears that as the wave of COVID-19 cases finally began to slow, the...more

Title IX Updates: Key Wins—and a Loss—in Federal Courts for Transgender Students and Athletes

Happy New Year from the Title IX team at Franczek! Over the next several posts, we will be providing Title IX updates from the end of 2022 that you might have missed, as well as noteworthy items to keep an eye on in 2023. ...more

Title IX Protections for Pregnancy after Overturning of Roe v. Wade

The Biden Administration has recently taken steps through agency guidance, rulemaking and decision-making to highlight protections for students and employees with pregnancy-related conditions, including abortion, under the...more

What’s the Future for Biden Administration Protections for LGBTQ+ Students and Employees under Title IX?

Recent court and OCR decisions regarding transgender students and employees reflect widely varying responses to the Biden administration’s efforts to expand protections for LGBTQ+ individuals under federal law, including...more

Potential Threats to Biden Administration Protections for LGBTQ+ Students and Employees under Title IX?

Recent court and OCR decisions regarding transgender students and employees reflect widely varying responses to the Biden administration’s efforts to expand protections for LGBTQ+ individuals under federal law, including...more

Governor Pritzker Signs Two New Special Education Laws Regarding Placement and Interpretation Services

Governor Pritzker recently signed two bills into law, expanding accessibility and flexibility within special education. The first, Public Act 102-0703 (House Bill 4365), allows IEP teams to place students at non-ISBE-approved...more

Two Grievance Procedures in the New Title IX Proposed Regs?

You may have noticed while skimming through the new Title IX proposed regulations that there are now seemingly two grievance procedures to address Title IX complaints instead of one. You’ll recall that the current 2020...more

Supreme Court rules in favor of football coach who prayed on field after games

On Monday June 27, the Supreme Court issued their ruling in the case Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. (We previously reported on this case.) In a 6-3 decision penned by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the conservative majority...more

Biden Administration Releases New Proposed Title IX Regulations

Yesterday, the Biden administration released its highly anticipated proposed Title IX regulations on the 50th anniversary of the passage of Title IX. The Department also released a fact sheet on the draft rule as well as the...more

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Title IX

This week, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark legislation signed into law on June 23 as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. Consisting of a mere 37 words—“No person in the United States shall,...more

When School Districts Are Liable for Employee-Student Sexual Abuse under Title IX

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed that school districts may only be liable for employee sexual misconduct when a school official has actual notice of the conduct. In C.S. v. Madison Metropolitan School District, the...more

Considerations for Law Enforcement Referrals

School district practices on referrals to local law enforcement for student misconduct in schools are facing intense scrutiny in the wake of the ProPublica investigation reported these past weeks in the Chicago Tribune. ...more

Title IX Refresher Series Part III: Title IX Decision-Maker

We recently launched a multi-part series where we are providing a refresher on the key players on the Title IX team under the current 2020 regulations. While we wait for the Biden administration to release their proposed...more

Are Mask Mandates a Reasonable Accommodation?

In Illinois, as universal masking is fading, the next question looms: what will the end of universal masking mean for staff and students with disabilities who are at high risk? Across the county, issues regarding universal...more

OCR Issues Fact Sheet on Providing FAPE During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Addressing the Need for Compensatory Services Under...

The Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Education recently issued a new Fact Sheet. The Fact Sheet repeats prior guidance that “the responsibility for schools to comply with Section 504 continues regardless of how...more

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