Legal Lessons

The selected Legal Lessons listed below are a series of items legal in nature originally published as part of the School Leader Update. Legal Lessons are only informational. They do not constitute legal advice. If you need legal advice for your own situation you should contact your district's legal counsel or private counsel.

Abuse of students by school employees (Chapter 102 Level 1 Investigator)

Appeals

• Appeal Decisions
• Appeal Procedures

Athletic Eligibility

• Athletic Eligibility for Students who Open Enroll Due to Harassment
• Athletic Eligibility - Scholarship Rule
• Athletic Eligibility - Reorganizations, Whole Grade Sharing, Dissolutions

Athletic Reminders

Attendance policies - Key Points to Remember

Background checks and the role of Board of Educational Examiners

Birth Certificates

Bloodborne Pathogen Guidance

Bullying and Harassment

• Bullying, harassment, and the equity link
• Bullying and Harassment
• Letter to educational leaders regarding discrimination and harassment based on race, religion, or national origin

Cell Phones - Confiscation and Searches

Choosing an Electronic Health Record System, Vendors, and School Health Services

Close or Not to Close, that is the Question

Compulsory Attendance Reminders SWVPP and Kindergarten

Custody, Court Orders, and Requests for Records

Dress Codes

Digital Fingerprinting by School Districts Illegal

Driver's Education, waivers, nonpublic school students

Emergency Operations Plans & Confidentiality

ESSA’s Provisions for Educational Stability for Children in Foster Care: Effective December 2016

English Learners

• English learner students equal access to education
• English learners - The U.S. Department of Education releases guidance on

Enrollment policies for the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program

Epinephrine for schools

Equity Issues

• Equality for transgender students
• Guidance Issued on Equity for Students in Career and Technical Education
• Violence, Discrimination - USDE OCR guidance on responsibilities of schools
• Voluntary Resolution with Mississippi’s Tupelo Public School - USDE’s Office of Civil Rights Announcement

Expulsion and suspension policies in early childhood classrooms

Fee Reminders

FERPA

• FERPA and Videos
• FERPA and emergencies
• FERPA for Facebook, other social media
• FERPA and School Volunteers
• FERPA Guidance for School Resource Officers
• FERPA Guidance on the USA
• FERPA and PPRA Notices
• FERPA Responsibilities 
• NSLA and FERPA

Firearms on school grounds

First Amendment/Free Speech

• Confederate flag in school and free speech
• First Amendment
• Free Speech Principles

Food Allergies

Foreign exchange students (those with a J-1 Visa)

Foster Care

• Information sharing for children in foster care
• Educational Records for children in foster care

Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) following Supreme Court Decision

Gift Law

Good Conduct

• Rules over the summer
• A review of Good Conduct
• Good Conduct/GPA Policies and Curricular and Co-Curricular Activities
• Good Conduct Policies - Appeal

Graduation

• Graduation - Reminders on school days
• Graduation Don'ts - Top Six (May 2019

Head Lice: A nuisance but not a medical or health hazard

Homeless

• New Rules Effective for Athletics and Homeless Students
• Local homeless education liaison
• Homeless students

IDEA and ADA, Intersection of

Instructional Hours vs. Days Updates

Immigrant Children/Students

• Immigrant Children, Education of
• Immigrant students, Guidance from the USDE on

Kadyn’s Law - Iowa School Bus Safety

Laptops, Chromebooks and Other Technology Fees

Limited home rule

McKinney-Vento

• Homeless students
• Local homeless education liaison
• McKinney-Vento Amendments

Medicaid, New federal special education rule on claiming

Medication Waste Guidance

Miranda Warnings to Students

Money remaining in student lunch accounts

Natural Disasters and Displaced Students

New Rule Adopted by the Iowa Public Information Board - Exempt Sessions

Open Enrollment

• Athletic Eligibility for Students who Open Enroll Due to Harassment
• Open enrollment appeals
• Open enrollment appeals: Applying the correct legal standard
• Open Enrollment Appeal Procedures
• Open enrollment nuts and bolts
• Open enrollment to online academies
• Open Enrollment Refresher

Open Records Law and Emails

Opting Out of Testing

Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment - School Compliance

Physical education excusals and less-than-year-long PE

Pledge of Allegiance

Pregnancy Discrimination - New Guidance from EEOC

Prom: The Four "Ds" of Prom Protocol: Dates, Dress, Decorum, Drug Testing

Public property, equipment and funds

Records and access to students

Top Five Registration Issues

Religious Holiday Celebrations in Public Schools - Important Reminders

Religious Music in Public Schools

Residency Issues

Resident or Not - That is the Question

Resident Students, Obligation to Educate

School Assembly Guidance

School Discipline - Guidance from USDE

School Discipline Guidance from U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education is Rescinded

School Health Legal Reference Summary

School immunizations and enrollment

School Nurses

• School Nurses Caution: Picking up Student Prescriptions
• School Nurses - Practice and Regulation

School Safety

• School Safety and Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs)
• School Safety Tips - School Security Video Intercom Access Control Systems, Protecting Students from Extreme Heat Situations
• School Safety: Classroom Locks
• School Safety Tips from the Iowa School Safety Coalition (ISSC)

School start date: co-curricular vs. extra-curricular activities

Search and Seizure

• Search and Seizure: Top 10 Things to Know
• Fourth Amendment Search and Seizure – Iowa v. Mar’Yo D. Lindsey Jr. — From the Iowa Supreme Court

Service Animals in Schools

Sexual Misconduct

• Updated Guidance from the USDE on Campus Sexual Assaults

Sexual Exploitation

• Sexual Exploitation changes in the law
• Sexual Exploitation - Amendment to Iowa Code § 709.15
• Iowa Supreme Court reverses coach’s sexual exploitation conviction

Senior Year Plus and dual-enrolled students

Smoking & Vaping on School Grounds

Snow Days and Hours Guidance Revisited

Snow Days, Part II

Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program Important Policy Reminders

Student Privacy

• New Student Privacy Website

Student Records and Child Abuse Investigations

Student Records, Retention and Spring Cleaning

Student Who is Almost 21

Students with ADHD - U.S. Department of Education Releases Guidance on Civil Rights

Students with Disabilities

• Athletics, Students with Disabilities
• Bullying of students with disabilities - USDE Office of Civil Rights Guidance
• Diploma Requirements, Certificates, and Students with Disabilities
• Measles in Schools while Protecting the Civil Rights of Students with Disabilities, OCR Guidance on the Risk of
• Update on amendments to open enrollment rules

Summertime coaching activities

Supplement Not Supplant Guidance from the U.S. Department of Education

Supreme Court (United States and Iowa courts)

• USDE Issues New Q&A on Free Appropriate Public Education following Supreme Court Decision
• Fourth Amendment Search and Seizure - Iowa v. Mar’Yo D. Lindsey Jr. - From the Iowa Supreme Court
• Iowa Supreme Court reverses coach’s sexual exploitation conviction

The Teacher Next Door - How to Catch a Predator

Title IX

• OCR Guidance on Designating Title IX Equity Coordinator
• Title IX and single-sex elementary and secondary classes and extracurricular
• New Proposed Title IX Rule Provides Clarity for Schools, Support for Survivors, and Due Process Rights for All

Transportation for Shared Programs

Uninterrupted Scholars Act

U.S. Department of Education Acts on School Safety Report Recommendation to Improve Understanding of Student Privacy Law

U.S. Department of Education Guidance on School Climate Resources

U.S. Department of Education Issues Updates on Equitable Services for Private School Students under ESSA

U.S. Departments of Education, Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services Release School Safety District Guide

Unpaid Meal Policies - Best Practices to Ensure Access to Meals

Student VISAs

Work permits for students