The Public Access Counselor (PAC) of the Illinois Attorney General’s office recently issued two binding opinions addressing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Specifically, the opinions found two public entities violated FOIA by improperly applying for the “trade secrets” exemption […]
Category: Higher Education
Key Lessons for School Officials and Other Public Employees from Recent Court Decision on Trump’s Twitter Account
July 16, 2019
As technology and social media continue to develop, so do legal questions surrounding their use by public entities and employees. On July 9, 2019, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump decided that President Trump […]
On June 5, the Governor signed Public Act 101-0010 which, among other things, deleted the TRS 3% excess salary cap and revived the 6% cap. (See our email alert that same day reporting on the history of the 3% legislation.) As a result of […]
We previously reported, in 2016, that the Obama-era National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued a decision in Columbia University that paved the way for graduate students to unionize at private higher education institutions. In the years since, under the current Republican-controlled Board, unions […]
New Guidance Addresses FERPA Related to School Safety
March 8, 2019
On the heels of a report by the Federal Commission on School Safety suggesting that many school leaders remain confused about the ability to share student identifying information during an emergency situation, the Department of Education’s Privacy Technical Assistance Center recently released […]
February FOIA Roundup
March 4, 2019
February was a busy month for decisions about the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA” or the “Act”). In addition to a Public Access Counselor (“PAC”) decision reminding public bodies to respond to FOIA requests (and the consequences if they […]
According to the PAC, Communications About Public Business on Personal Devices Subject to FOIA
February 6, 2019
Since a 2013 Illinois Appellate Court decision, the City of Champaign v. Madigan, Illinois public bodies have known that three categories of emails and text messages sent to or from personal technology devices are “public records” subject to the Freedom […]
Web Accessibility: OCR is Back, Is Your Website Ready?
December 5, 2018
As we mentioned in our article last month, the November 2018 version of the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Case Processing Manual (CPM), deleted a section that was added in March 2018 that allowed OCR to dismiss burdensome complaints by […]