The Oldest Blog
A first amendment blog for school administrators and attorneys.
By Leila Gary, Jackie Gharapour Wernz, & Leah Northener
It’s well established that Title IX applies only to entities that receive federal financial assistance, which traditionally has been interpreted to apply to a school’s actual receipt of federal money, such as special education funds. Two recent decisions from federal courts in Maryland and California have turned this traditional understanding on its head, holding that a school’s tax-exempt status under the federal tax code is the functional equivalent of receiving funds. What do these decisions mean for tax-exempt private and independent schools?
The Maryland case, Buettner-Hartsoe v. Baltimore Lutheran High School Association, involved a private, independent, religiously-affiliated school that was sued for damages under Title IX. The school argued that it was not subject to Title IX because the events at issue occurred before it accepted a federal PPP loan and had not otherwise accepted federal funds. The former students argued that the school was subject to Title IX because it received a federal tax exemption as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The judge agreed, finding that an organization’s tax exemption under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code is akin to a “Congressional subsidy and the equivalent of a cash grant” from the federal government.
The post Does Title IX Apply to Tax-Exempt Private Schools? Two Courts Say Yes appeared first on Title IX Tips.
On July 19, 2022, the U.S. Department of Education announced the release of new guidance from its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) discussing public elementary and secondary schools’ responsibilities in meeting the needs of students with disabilities and avoiding discriminatory use of student discipline under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The Department’s press release notes that these guidance documents are “the most comprehensive guidance on the civil rights of students with disabilities concerning student discipline and build on the Department’s continued efforts to support students and schools through pandemic recovery.”
The post New OCR and OSERS Guidance Highlights Positive Behavior Supports, Safety, and Nondiscrimination appeared first on Special Education Spotlight.
The Texas Department of Agriculture recently published its list of school districts, charters, and other entities whose child nutrition operations
To start, what is an independent educational evaluation (IEE)? An IEE is an evaluation conducted by a qualified evaluator who is not employed by the school district responsible for the education of the child. A parent or legal guardian has the right to request an IEE at public expense when the parent disagrees with an already completed evaluation done by the school.
If your school receives a request for an IEE, you have only 2 options: 1) file a due process complaint to defend the appropriateness of the school’s evaluation, or 2) fund the requested IEE. But before you make that decision, you do want to check to make sure you are dealing with a proper request.
The post Don’t Let a Request for an Independent Educational Evaluation Trip You Up! appeared first on Special Education Spotlight.
Why Kennedy v. Bremerton School District was Not the Case that Some Judges Thought It Was.
The post A Tale of Two Football Fields appeared first on The Oldest Blog.
By Dianna D. Bowen and Taylor M. Montgomery
Thought your LEA’s Special Education Operating Procedures were good to go? You likely need to think again! As required by the Texas Education Agency (“TEA”), LEAs across the state worked hard to finalize and upload Special Education Operating Procedures for the Child Find, Evaluation, and ARD Committee sections of the Legal Framework by October 2020. At the time, most LEAs drafted separate procedures for each of the subsections under the Child Find, Evaluation, and ARD Committee sections in the Legal Framework. Since then, special education administrators have been actively working to review and revise these procedures to ensure accuracy and compliance with state and federal requirements while awaiting further guidance from TEA on drafting operating procedures for the remaining sections of the Legal Framework.
But instead of guidance on the remaining sections, TEA has released a series of templates (the “Legal Framework templates”) relating to the first three sections of the Legal Framework. By August 31, 2022, LEAs must re-upload Special Education Operating Procedures in accordance with the information in the Legal Framework templates. This includes new naming nomenclatures, certain content/topics, and answers to specific questions for each upload.
The Special Education Team at Thompson & Horton has been working with clients to ensure their Special Education Operating Procedures comply with the new requirements. Below are common questions and answers that we have been answering for LEAs during this process.
The post Special Education Operating Procedures: The Hard Work Isn’t Over appeared first on Special Education Spotlight.