Texas school districts are authorized to provide public school transportation. For those that do, motor vehicle accidents are fertile ground for claims against school districts. School districts may benefit from taking the time to review their risk management approach to the provision of transportation services.

What outcome are school districts hoping for as a result of the lawsuit? That everything stays how it was, said Jo Beth Jimerson, a Texas Christian University education professor. I don’t really think anything changes, because they already know that the standards are eventually raising,” she said. “So, the schools already have targets and benchmarks they’ve been trying to reach.”  Cracks may show in the relationship between schools and the TEA if districts don’t win the lawsuit, Jimerson said.  “There has now been a seed of distrust sown,” Jimerson said. “You’re going to tell me what those rules are; OK, we now know what the higher standards are; are you gonna change those a year from now? Now we’d have a situation with Lucy and Charlie Brown … Lucy’s pulling the ball out.”Lower ratings are widely expected under the revised formulas.  view article

For many school districts, posting information on district websites and social media has become a vital tool in how districts communicate with their parents, students and communities. Additionally, the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Legislature have created a number of legal requirements involving posting information regarding transparency and district operations. Posting this information the district website is one way to ensure compliance with the law. Everything from your District of Innovation Plan to your school calendar to the next week’s lunch menu are available to anyone, at any time, day or night, via your district website.

At this point we don’t need to impress upon you the meaningful impacts that a well-written District of Innovation (“DOI”) Plan can have on school operations. After nearly ten years of the DOI experiment, it’s no secret that these plans are powerful tools—especially if properly drafted. Whether your District is seeking to adopt a plan for the first time, to renew an expiring plan, or to amend an existing plan, you must ensure that you carefully consider including the latest and greatest exemptions. This quick article will address some of the most popular and emerging innovations worth considering.

We see it every year: parents trying to opt their child out of STAAR testing. Some claim it’s against their religious beliefs, some claim it’s bad for their children’s mental health, and some have no problem stating they just don’t want to participate. Below we’ll discuss the constellation of consequences that students may face for their parent’s choice of opting out, and what issues your school district might encounter if more and more parents begin to follow this trend.

The State Board of Education is proposing amendments to 19 Tex. Admin. Code Ch. 74, as well as revamping and rewriting the Dyslexia Handbook, proposed to be called the “Texas Dyslexia and Dysgraphia Handbook.”

In Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled “students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” Still, the First Amendment does not provide students absolute rights to such freedoms. Schools have a special interest in regulating on-campus student speech when it “materially and substantially interfere[s] with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school,” or such a disruption could be reasonably forecasted, or the speech “impinge[s] upon the rights of other students.” Balancing those competing interests, Tinker provides the standard for evaluating whether the First Amendment protects a student’s speech. Since Tinker, the Court has revisited student speech on multiple occasions, each time carving out narrow exceptions to the general Tinker standard based on certain characteristics or content of the speech, to include Tinker’s reach to off-campus student speech.

If you have spent more than five minutes in a Texas public school, you are likely aware that students must meet certain academic requirements to maintain extracurricular eligibility. At the end of each grading cycle, we hear the refrain echoing down the halls of the school—No pass, no play. With a slogan that simple, you would think the application would be straightforward. Not necessarily. Confusion seems to have arisen from UIL’s apparent interpretation of section 38.081 of the Education Code governing extracurricular eligibility and how it applies to students receiving special education and related services. It is important to understand both the statute itself as well as UIL’s interpretation to best position yourself to defend your eligibility decisions.

Texas Education Code (TEC) Chapter 37 outlines legal requirements for student discipline and the maintaining of law and order within schools, including required student discipline training for staff. Safety and security in schools is not just law enforcement’s responsibility but also the duty of all school staff—administrators, teachers, and support staff alike. Providing school staff with the necessary knowledge and tools for effective student behavior management has never been more critical than in today’s school climate. With a focus in school safety, applying the appropriate discipline management techniques for the situation can make the difference between effectively redirecting student misconduct or involuntarily escalating student behavior resulting in threatening or violent conduct that puts staff and students at risk.

Warning: Do not read this article if you like having the rug pulled out from under your feet. I’ll wait. . . . This article is based on language found in the current standard contract published by the American Institute of Architects for Construction Management at Risk Projects. It is often referred to as the “A133” 2019 edition. ALWAYS consult your attorney before signing one. NEVER make assumptions about whether your contract has been modified or not. Construction contracts are A BIG DEAL – maybe the BIGGEST DEAL you will do in your ENTIRE LIFE. Also remember “standard contracts” are not free from hazards. In “standard contracts,” the hazards are simply “standard.”

You may have heard by now that the Department of Labor has released a new proposed rule that it claims will restore overtime pay to 3.6 million employees making less than $1,059 per week, which is about $55,000 per year. The current threshold is $684 per week or $35,568 per year. The DOL also proposes raising the threshold for highly compensated employees to $143,988 from $107,432. In addition to these initial hikes, the DOL is proposing future automatic increases every three years to reflect current earnings data. The comment period opened on Friday, September 8, 2023, with the official publication of the rule and continues for 60 days, or until November 7, 2023. Please consider commenting about how this proposal will impact schools.

In 2021, the Texas Education Agency adopted new Facilities Standards for projects beginning after November 1, 2021. While the bulk of these Standards impose technical requirements on the design of facilities (square footage, etc.), they also contain explicit, concrete steps that a school district must take as part of the process. This article covers three specific actions: (1) preparing a Long Range Plan, (2) adopting Educational Specifications, and (3) formally establishing a budget during the design process.

Following the violent tragedies experienced in Uvalde ISD, Santa Fe ISD, and other schools around the country, Texans have since demanded state leaders effectuate change to prevent future tragedies impacting our schools. Well… the 88th Texas Legislature provided us with several significant changes impacting school security, including panic alert systems, facilities standards, and as we will explore in this article, armed security personnel. Even if this isn’t the change we all envisioned, you need to be aware of the actions your District needs to promptly take in order to ensure your compliance with House Bill 3.