Centennial secretaries

I thought I worked at a School, Not a Circus. . .

Karen Haase

Harding & Shultz (402) 434-3000 khaase@hslegalfirm.com

Custody Disputes

Custody Disputes: Stay Out of it! ► Refuse

to offer opinions ► Decline interviews with attorneys ► Refuse service of subpoenas during school time ► Consider motion to quash ► Strictly observe FERPA

Custody Disputes: If you’re in it  Stick to your expertise • As a staff member • Not a psychologist/social worker

Non-Custodial Parents and Special Education â–şIDEA

gives rights to parents, foster parents, in loco parentis â–şNavin v. Park Ridge Sch. Dist. 64, 270 F.3d 1147 (7th Cir. 2001)

Release of Children

Everyone thinks he’s a lawyer

Release of Children ►FERPA:

Non-custodial parents have same rights as custodial

►Unless

there is evidence of a legally binding document that specifically revokes rights. (34 C.F.R. 99.4)

►Pauley

v. Anchorage Sch. Dist., 31 P.3d 1284 (Ala. 2001)

Practical Advice ►Politely

decline to accept copies of divorce decrees, custody agreements, etc, etc. ►Release to bio parents and their designees ► Call the cops if concerned

What’s in a Name?

Special Education and Student Discipline

Procedural Protection without Verification  District has imputed knowledge if: • Parents have requested evaluation • Parents have expressed concern to the district that child special education • Child’s behavior demonstrates need for services • District personnel have expressed concern about child’s behavior or performance in accordance with the district's special education referral system.

Request for evaluation after misconduct  District has no imputed knowledge of disability  School may determine child’s placement pending results of the evaluation and, if necessary, manifestation determination

Responding to Subpoenas

An e-mail by any other name  A Business Record  A Public Record  An Education Record  A SpEd Record  A Hearing Exhibit

E-mail as Business Record

E-mail as Business Record Federal Rules of Civil Procedure  Rule 26 – duty to disclose; general provisions governing discovery  Rule 37 – failure to make or cooperate in discovery; sanctions  Rule 37(f) – safe harbor

E-mail as Public Record

E-mail as Public Record Records "of" or "belonging to" state agencies under § 84-712.01 are those records "owned" by the agencies or those records for which the state agencies possess title or an ownership interest. E-mails in your staff’s possession are public records – even if they are on their home computers

Retention Implications Must follow the Secretary of State’s Guidelines for retention “correspondence concerning students:” maintain until graduation or after 3 years’ absence SpEd records: maintain 5 years after no longer needed for services

E-mail as Education Record

E-mail as Education Record FERPA: “education record” means materials which “contain information directly related to a student [and] maintained by an educational agency” Includes “print or computer media”

E-mail as Education Record Owasso Ind. Sch. Dist. v. Falvo, 534 U.S. 426 (2002) S.A. v. Tulare County Office of Educ., 109 LRP 60382 (E.D. Cal. 2009) Washoe County Sch. Dist., 109 LRP 78026 (Nev. April 2, 2009)

E-mail as SpEd Record

E-mail as SpEd Record IDEA requires notification of SpEd parents prior to deleting ed records which contain “personally identify information collected, maintained, or used” Washoe County Sch. Dist., 109 LRP 78026 (Nev. April 2, 2009)

Practical Pointers  Create, review and enforce your e-mail retention policy  Comply with State’s retention schedule  Keep relevant SpEd emails in hard copy  Notify before deletion

I thought I worked at a School, Not a Circus. . .

Karen Haase

Harding & Shultz (402) 434-3000 khaase@hslegalfirm .com

H & S Power Point Template Karen Haase Harding & Shultz (402) 434-3000 khaase@hslegalfirm.com

H & S School Law @KarenHaase

Text only Slides Look Like This  Bullet point  Bullet point • Sub Bullet

 Or, if you’re NES, you can write a whole bunch of text here and make Kelley really crazy by having a bunch of words that no one really reads because it gets too long and b i b h ’ kb

Benefits to using a PP Template  Standardization – Allows us to contnue a standard “look”  Time saving – we will no longer have to work with a template that was created ad-hoc in an attempt to mimic Corel Presentations  Printing – we won’t have the problem of black slides

Picture Slides Look Like This  We can swap the order of the text and picture if we want  This color scheme is sort of a salute to the old colors.

H & S Power Point Template Karen Haase Harding & Shultz (402) 434-3000 khaase@hslegalfirm.com

H & S School Law @KarenHaase