The Illinois General Assembly is poised to consider sweeping and potentially controversial educational reform legislation. Both Houses announced new bipartisan working groups that will address education reform issues over the coming weeks. Proposals by education advocacy groups such as Stand for […]
An Illinois Appellate Court recently held that because a group of citizens were “participating in government” when they demanded the local school district remove a basketball coach from his position, they were protected from being sued for making defamatory statements […]
The Illinois Senate voted yesterday to join the House of Representatives in overriding Governor Quinn’s amendatory veto of House Bill 5154. The bill, effective immediately upon becoming law, amends the Personnel Record Review Act, 820 ILCS 40/11, to prohibit disclosure of […]
In a recent Dear Colleague Letter, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) warned that school districts may violate federal law if they fail to determine whether seemingly isolated incidents of bullying are actually sufficiently serious to constitute […]
In Thornton Fractional High Sch. Dist. No. 215 v. IELRB, the Illinois Appellate Court recently held that a high school district did not engage in any unfair labor practices when it did not assign 12-month secretarial positions on the basis of […]
Last week, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Illinois’ Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act. The Court’s opinion finds that the Act does not violate the First Amendment’s prohibition on laws respecting an establishment of a religion and also finds that […]
In Sherman v. Township High School District 214 and Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois Appellate Court agreed with the brief filed by Franczek P.C. and upheld the constitutionality of District 214’s policy to charge a $350 fee to students […]
This past July, P.A. 96-1008 changed several deadlines in the Election Code, including when nominating petitions for school board elections and objections to petitions must be submitted. Our July 9, 2010 FR Alert noted that nominating petitions for next year’s school board elections must […]
