You probably will not be surprised to learn that students with disabilities are more likely than their general education peers to be referred for a threat assessment. Indeed, students who have deficits in social...more
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a statement yesterday reminding schools, colleges, and universities of their responsibilities to address discrimination and harassment based on race and...more
3/5/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Best Practices ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Educational Institutions ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Harassment ,
Health and Safety ,
Infectious Diseases ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
OCR ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Public Health ,
Race Discrimination ,
Risk Management ,
Students ,
Title IX ,
Title VII
On February 18, 2020, ISBE approved revised proposed rules related to the use of physical restraint and time out in schools. The revised proposed rules follow ISBE’s receipt and review of over three hundredb comments on...more
2/20/2020
/ Child Abuse ,
Disciplinary Proceedings ,
Education Reform ,
Educational Institutions ,
Health and Safety ,
ISBE ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Restraints ,
Risk Management ,
Rulemaking Process ,
State and Local Government ,
Students ,
Training Requirements
Is your school threat assessment team in place and ready to act in order to meet upcoming legal deadlines? Does it understand the interaction between threat assessments and special education evaluations? Is it adequately...more
In a recent decision, the Appellate Court of Illinois rejected a school board’s decision to terminate a tenured teacher for misconduct despite a hearing officer’s finding that there was insufficient evidence of cause for...more
1/22/2020
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Appeals ,
Board of Education ,
Defense Strategies ,
Disciplinary Proceedings ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Insubordination Policy ,
Public Schools ,
School Boards ,
Teachers ,
Tenure ,
Wrongful Termination
The Illinois State Board of Education has filed emergency rules, effective immediately, banning the use of isolated time out in our schools. Like many of you, we were disheartened to read the Tribune/Pro Publica report on the...more
On October 17, 2019, Franczek P.C. Special Education team members Dana Fattore Crumley and Emily Tulloch presented at the IAASE 2019 Fall Conference on Fighting Friendly Fire in your IEP: Avoiding Internal Challenges to IDEA...more
With all the hub-bub about HB 3586, you would be excused if you missed that another special education law, passed last year, went into effect this school year. This one is easy to implement. ...more
9/20/2019
/ Disability Discrimination ,
Disabled Children ,
Educational Institutions ,
Handbooks ,
Independent Educational Evaluation ,
Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) ,
Online Platforms ,
Posting Requirements ,
Regulatory Reform ,
School Districts ,
Section 504 ,
Special Education ,
Students ,
Websites
A speech pathologist goes out on unexpected medical leave. Three paraprofessionals quit in one week. A special education teacher is abducted by aliens and no substitutes are available. Sometimes staff absences are...more
Governor Pritzker recently signed into law Public Act 101-0455 amending the School Safety Drill Act (105 ILCS 128/1) to require threat assessment procedures and the creation of threat assessment teams in school districts...more
9/18/2019
/ Adverse Events ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
FERPA ,
FOIA ,
Incident Response Plans ,
Information Sharing ,
New Legislation ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Public Acts ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Risk Assessment ,
School Districts ,
State and Local Government ,
Threat Management ,
Vulnerability Assessments
Governor Pritzker recently signed a law requiring notification or attempted notification of the parent or guardian of a student suspected of criminal activity prior to detaining and questioning the student on school grounds...more
One of the loftiest goals of K-12 education is to teach children to disagree respectfully, but what do you do if they disrespectfully disagree—especially on a hot button, highly-sensitive topic?...more
You may have seen a recent article from the National School Boards Association about robots in the classroom. If not, it a good and short read, particularly regarding the pedagogical questions to ask before employing...more