ADMINISTRATOR FORUM
SPRING 2009
I. Strategies to Limit School District Exposure to
Parents Attorney Fees in Special Education Hearings
A school district may employ a number of proactive strategies to limit its liability for parent attorney fees. We will discuss various strategies for limiting such fees, and review recent court decisions which extend additional protections to school districts.
II. Letters Lawsuits, and Litigation Holds: How to Prevent
an E-Discovery Disaster
The School Code provides that school districts can sue and be sued. Schools, even if not made a party to a lawsuit, have duties to provide information to the parties involved. Failure to preserve information relevant to a suit can result in court imposed sanctions involving not only money but also a party’s ability to make its case. This segment will explore traps for the unwary school arising in the context of records retention, formulating and implementing a “litigation hold” and complying with electronic discovery requests. In addition, a “litigation hold” checklist will be provided and discussed.
III. New Case Highlights
State and federal court decisions are continuously impacting the educational landscape. It is important for each district to stay on top of these changes. We will be summarizing the most important cases rendered in the past six months.
IV. School Employee Speech
An Employee’s personal statements can oftentimes conflict with the educational mission of the school district. As a state actor, school districts must face the additional burdens of the First Amendment not faced by private sector employers. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 (2006) may have reduced this burden by providing school districts, as employers, with a defense to employee first amendment challenges to adverse employment decisions.
V. Employer’s Right to Search Employees
We frequently hear
about searches of students. We rarely hear about the employer’s
right to search employees and their work areas. There is a
growing trend in this regard. We will talk about the current
status of limitations and rights of the employer in this rapidly
changing area.