Stealth Lawyer: Clare Dalton, Acupuncturist
As we approach the new year, Franczek is pleased to recap the new legislation applicable to K-12 schools that passed in 2023. Below you will find our compilation of this year’s legislative changes. A PDF version of the 2023...more
On November 22, 2023, Michigan Governor Gretchen E. Whitmer signed into law two bills (SB 395 & SB 396) reforming the teacher and school administrator evaluation processes at K-12 schools. The new legislation introduces...more
This school year has begun with a number of changes related to teacher tenure, evaluations, and dismissals. On August 4, 2023, Governor Pritzker signed into law Public Act 103-0500, revising the Illinois School Code...more
Every year as May 1 approaches, Connecticut school districts are confronted with an unpleasant, albeit familiar, process. For better or worse, teacher non-renewal is a fact of life under the Teacher Tenure Act and the...more
On May 13, 2022, Gov. Hochul signed Chapter 201 of the laws of 2022. Included in this legislation, which passed unanimously in both the Senate and Assembly, was the elimination of the requirement for school districts and...more
On June 7, a law was enacted continuing the changes made to the tenure and the APPR performance review process for teachers and principals enacted during the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic period. School districts should...more
On June 7, 2021, Governor Cuomo signed into law a bill that amends the tenure process for probationary teachers and principals to account for changes necessary to the normal procedure due to the COVID-19 pandemic with regard...more
In a recent Illinois case, the Second District Appellate Court affirmed a school board’s termination of a tenured teacher who sexually harassed students on the girls’ track team he coached. The students alleged that the...more
For school personnel administrators, it is a frustrating but typical experience to have a teachers’ union representative object to warnings and directives on the grounds that the warning is too broad, or not directly on point...more
On December 17, 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that a community college violated the Illinois Public Community College Act when it replaced laid off tenured faculty members with adjunct faculty. The case addressed...more
A tenured professor at Erskine College in Due West claimed the institution breached its employment contract with him as set forth in the faculty manual. The trial court overruled the jury verdict in the professor’s favor, but...more
The Illinois Appellate Court recently affirmed the dismissal of a tenured fifth-grade teacher accused of intentionally breaking the seals on standardized test booklets to help students cheat on the test....more
On April 13, 2020, the Commissioner of Education issued “guidance pertaining to the flexibilities for local or regional boards of education related to non-renewal notifications and tenure impacted as a result of COVID-19.” ...more
With the end of the school year slowly approaching, remember that any recommendations to non-renew a probationary teacher’s employment for the next school year must likely be acted upon at the board’s March or April meeting. ...more
A recent Illinois State Board of Education hearing officer decision upheld the dismissal of a tenured teacher who engaged in off-topic rants in the classroom, stored pornographic images on a district laptop, and refused to...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
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
Two key bills for school administrators – one attempting to correct a dichotomy in tenure laws, one seeking to remove the salary cap for BOCES superintendents – were vetoed at the close of 2018. How do these vetoes impact...more
With PERA’s full implementation on September 1, 2016, it is important to remember that all full-time probationary teachers who are first employed with a school district after a district’s PERA implementation date are subject...more
A series of Twitter posts from a tenured Fresno State English professor about former First Lady Barbara Bush has once again sparked a national conversation about how the First Amendment applies in the university setting, and...more
In June of 2015, the Michigan Court of Appeals decided Summer v Southfield Board of Education (“Summer I”), addressing the circumstances and bases under which a teacher may challenge his or her annual evaluation as a result...more
Plaintiff James Wetherbe, a professor in Texas Tech University’s business school, is not your typical professor. While universities are no stranger to lawsuits from unhappy professors passed over for tenure, few see lawsuits...more
In one of the first teacher dismissal decisions of 2017, school districts across the state of Illinois scored a victory as an independent hearing officer upheld the dismissal of a tenured teacher for improperly assisting...more
In Chicago Teachers Union, Local No. 1, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO v. Bd. of Educ. of the City of Chicago, Case No. 14-2843 (7th Cir. Aug. 7, 2015), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed a...more
Appellate Court Advance Release Opinions - AC36506 - Sidorova v. East Lyme Board of Education - Due to budget cuts, the Board of Education laid off the plaintiff who was a tenured French teacher. She sued for...more