Student loans and bankruptcy, hiring and firing of educators, state and national educational standards, and public charter school finance … there’s a diversity of issues to think about when it comes to education and the law. Speaking of which (and, yes, there will be a quiz):
U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) speaks with Bloomberg Law about his proposed legislation to make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy.
[Link: Congressman: Fix The Student Debt Crisis With Bankruptcy Reform]
CFPB issues student loan report and launches online tool for problem student loans (Ballard Spahr LLP):
‘”The CFPB issued today its report to Congress on private student loans as mandated by Dodd-Frank, which the CFPB describes as the ‘Cycle of boom and bust in private student loan market.’ … The CFPB and DOE state that while they consulted consumer and industry stakeholders in preparing the report, they ‘chose principally to use a data-driven approach using more detailed information than has been available in the past.’” Read on»
CFPB Releases Report on Private Student Loans, Testifies in Senate (BuckleySandler LLP):
“… the report covers (i) the evolution and current state of the private lending market, (ii) the characteristics of consumers of private student loans, (iii) consumer protections, including recent changes and possible gaps, (iv) fair lending compliance information currently available and its implications, and (v) statutory or legislative recommendations to improve consumer protections.” Read on»
Financial Aid Shopping Sheet for Student Loans Finalized (Ballard Spahr LLP):
“A final model ‘financial aid shopping sheet,’ the result of a collaborative effort by the CFPB and the Department of Education, has recently been issued by the DOE. The shopping sheet is intended to serve as a uniform financial aid disclosure form.” Read on»
CFPB Shares Feedback on Online College Cost Comparison Tool (Ballard Spahr LLP):
“In a recent blog post, the CFPB shared some of the feedback it has received on the beta version of its ‘Paying for College-Cost Comparison Tool’ that it launched in April… The CFPB reported that the beta test was a success, with a survey conducted by an association representing high school counselors finding that over 80% of its members thought the tool was ‘useful’ and that nearly half would recommend the tool to students/families without a single modification.” Read on»
Student Loans and Bankruptcy: The Uphill Climb to Eliminating Your Student Loan Debt (Jeff Field & Associates):
“… there are limited circumstances where student loans will not have to be repaid after filing bankruptcy. In these rare instances, student loan debt can be partially (or even fully) discharged after filing bankruptcy if, in an adversary proceeding, you can show that payment of the student loan will impose an undue hardship on you and your dependents.” Read on»
CFPB Seeks Additional Private Student Loan Complaints (BuckleySandler LLP):
“On June 13, the CFPB issued a Notice of Request for Information seeking information on existing private student loan complaints collected by state agencies, institutions of higher education, consumer and legal advocates, and lenders. In addition to its general solicitation, the CFPB specifically invited the participation of state attorneys general, schools, and advocacy groups.” Read on»
Student loans: lots of comments and another request for information (Ballard Spahr LLP):
“The CFPB apparently wants the information to ‘assist the Bureau in satisfying the [Dodd-Frank] requirement’ for the ombudsman to compile and analyze data on borrower complaints about private student loans. Oddly, there is no mention of the CFPB using the information in connection with the report it is preparing on private student loans.” Read on»
EPIC Urges Education Department to Protect Student Privacy (Electronic Privacy Information Center):
“The [Education Department’s] Institute of Education Sciences has proposed a ‘Study of Promising Features of Teacher Preparation Programs’ to help assess teacher effectiveness. The new database will contain records on ‘approximately 5,000 students and 360 teachers.’ EPIC urged the agency to only collect student data germane to teacher effectiveness, such as test scores, and opposed the agency’s collection of detailed student information such as actual name and ‘disciplinary incidences.’” Read on»
Michigan State University Ordinance Criminalizing Disruption Of Normal Activity Is Unconstitutional (Warner Norcross & Judd):
“The Court partially reversed the June 21, 2011 Court of Appeals opinion and held that a Michigan State University ordinance 15.05, which made it a misdemeanor offense to ‘disrupt the normal activity…of any person firm or agency while that person, firm or agency, is carrying out service activity or agreement for or with [Michigan State University],’ was facially unconstitutional.” Read on»
Court Strikes Most of ‘Gainful Employment’ Rule, But For-Profit Colleges Must Still Beware (Ifrah Law):
“For-profit education institutions may have breathed a sigh of relief on June 30, 2012, when a federal judge struck down most of the Department of Education’s Gainful Employment rule. The decision came none too soon, as the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued the ruling literally on the eve of the day the regulations were slated to take effect.” Read on»
Seventh Circuit Finds Holding High School Graduation in a Church Violates the Establishment Clause (Franczek Radelet P.C.):
“A Wisconsin school district held graduation ceremonies for its two high schools in a non-denominational, evangelical Christian church for several years…But the church also had a 15-20 foot tall cross at the front of the sanctuary, as well as Bibles and hymnals in the pews and religious literature in the lobby, including signs and pamphlets targeted at children.” Read on»
Seventh Circuit Upholds Jury Verdict in Favor of Teacher with Seasonal Affective Disorder (Franczek Radelet P.C.):
“… the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld a jury verdict finding in favor of a teacher with seasonal affective disorder claiming a Wisconsin school district violated her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The teacher claimed that the school district failed to accommodate her disability when it denied her repeated requests to relocate her class to a different classroom with exterior windows.” Read on»
Three Point Shot (Proskauer Rose LLP):
“…former Rice University defensive back Joseph Agnew and North Carolina A&T kicker Patrick Courtney filed a federal antitrust action against the NCAA alleging that the NCAA violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act by prohibiting its member institutions from awarding multiyear scholarships to student athletes, and by imposing an artificial cap on the number of scholarships that each Division I team could offer.” Read on»
Grants for Funding University Technology Transfer Introduced in Congress (McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP):
“Companion bills were introduced in Congress on April 25th of this year with little fanfare (particularly in comparison to the Leahy-Smith American Invents Act) but they have the potential to provide significant funding for university-related start-up companies.” Read on»
President Obama Announces Plan for STEM Master Teacher Corps (Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & Girard):
“Today the White House announced the President’s plan to dedicate $1 billion to create a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Master Teacher Corps. The program will begin in 50 locations with 50 exceptional STEM teachers leading the way, but plans are to expand to 10,000 STEM teachers within the next four years.” Read on»
Appellate Court Authorizes Use of Mandamus as Method to Challenge School Improvement Plan (Franczek Radelet P.C.):
“In Clarke v. Community Unit School District 303, plaintiffs filed suit against a school district alleging that the District violated the law by improperly adopting a School Improvement Plan (SIP) that did not comply with the requirements of the School Code. The provisions in the School Code relating to SIPs were mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).” Read on»
Kindergarten Readiness Act (Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & Girard):
“The [California] Kindergarten Readiness Act (SB 1381) was passed in September 2010 and is set to go into effect for the 2012-2013 school year. It is part of State Superintendent Torlakson’s Blueprint for Great Schools Initiative, which focuses on preparing students from kindergarten and beyond. The measure changes the required birthday admission to kindergarten and first grade.” Read on»
OSHA Whistleblower Protections In Schools (Fisher & Phillips LLP):
“The Labor Department recently strengthened its Occupational Safety and Health Act Whistleblower Program by dedicating additional funds to training its investigators, performing more thorough investigations, and reassigning responsibility for the Whistleblower Program directly to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Labor for greater oversight of the program.” Read on»
New Requirements for National School Lunch Program (Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & Girard):
“The Healthy, Hunger-Free Act of 2010 provided the most comprehensive changes to the school nutrition program in over a decade. The Act is aimed at fighting childhood obesity and childhood hunger, two problems that continue to face our school children.” Read on»
Responding To The EEOC’s Criminal Background Check Initiative (Fisher & Phillips LLP):
“As most of our readers have probably heard by now, the EEOC seems to want all employers to discontinue, or at least significantly curtail, their use of criminal-background checks. The EEOC’s Guidance outlines the agency’s position on criminal-background-check policies, but leaves many important questions unanswered, particularly with respect to schools, which are often required to conduct criminal-background checks.” Read on»
New Education Laws Take Effect in Illinois (Franczek Radelet P.C.):
“In an effort to help Illinois students be better prepared for college and the job market, Public Act 97-704 requires the Illinois State Board of Education to coordinate with various stakeholders and educational organizations to create mathematics curriculum models to be implemented in middle and high schools.” Read on»
Your School Is Religious – Does That Mean It’s Exempt? (Fisher & Phillips LLP):
“You’ve just received notice from your state unemployment commission that the School owes $10,000 in back unemployment taxes. You don’t understand how this occurred since your religious school has always been treated as exempt from unemployment.” Read on»
CFPB and State Attorneys General Cooperate in Military Arena (Ballard Spahr LLP):
“The investigation that led to the settlement announced last week among 20 State Attorneys General and QuinStreet, Inc., the owner of a website that markets educational institutions to military servicemembers and their families, was launched as result of the CFPB’s examination of the website, according to news reports.” Read on»
SEVP Implementation of the Accreditation Act (Mintz Levin):
“As the fall semester approaches, colleges and universities should be conscious of developments relating to the certification requirements that apply to schools that enroll foreign nonimmigrant students. During the first half of 2012, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, the federal agency responsible for certifying institutions to enroll foreign nonimmigrant students, began implementing changes that will affect all colleges, universities, and other educational institutions that provide English language training programs.” Read on»
Dignity For All Students Act Goes into Effect in New York State on July 1, 2012 (XpertHR):
“On July 1, 2012, the Dignity For All Students Act (DASA) will take effect in New York State. This law directly impacts school districts and school employees as it amends the New York State Education Law and provides that no student shall be subject to discrimination or harassment by employees, or students on school property or at a school function on the basis of the student’s actual or perceived race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender (including gender expression), or sex.” Read on»
NLRB Continues Focus on Universities, Will Revisit Graduate Students’ Right to Organize (Franczek Radelet P.C.):
“In what appears to be a continuing effort to revisit key labor decisions involving private colleges and universities, the National Labor Relations Board agreed to hear companion cases involving the rights of graduate students to join and form unions. This announcement comes on the heels of the Board’s invitation for interested parties to file amicus briefs addressing whether the NLRB should overturn its longstanding Yeshiva University case, which held that professors at private Universities are barred from unionizing, which we previously reported.” Read on»
Minnesota Supreme Court Upholds University’s Right to Discipline Student Over Cadaver-Related Facebook Posts (Franczek Radelet P.C):
“In Tatro v. University of Minnesota, the University gave a mortuary science student a failing grade for posting inappropriate comments about her cadaver on Facebook. The University found the student’s conduct to violate the ‘academic program rules’ of the mortuary science department, which were included in the course syllabus. The student argued that the discipline imposed by the University violated her free speech rights.” Read on»
Can Your School Suspend You for a Facebook Post? (Lawyers.com):
“A school district in Indiana last month finally settled a free-speech dispute over suspensions it handed out to two students who had posted revealing photos of themselves online. How much control can schools actually exert over the things students do and say on the Internet?” Read on»
School District Agrees to Allow Student to Wear “Jesus is Not a Homophobe” T-Shirt (Franczek Radelet P.C.):
“Last month, a federal district judge in Ohio approved an agreement between a student and a school district that permits the student to wear a t-shirt to his high school that says ‘Jesus is Not a Homophobe.’ Last year, the student wore the t-shirt to school on the 2011 National Day of Silence, a day during which students show support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered students.” Read on»
Ohio Court Enters Judgment in Favor of Student Who Wore T-Shirt That Reads “Jesus Is Not a Homophobe” (Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & Girard)
“This school free speech case is reminiscent of the Supreme Court’s 2007 case Morse v. Frederick, also known as the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case in which the Court upheld the discipline for a student’s drug-related speech at a school-sponsored, off-campus event. However unlike Morse, the Ohio case did not relate to illegal drug use.” Read on»
FBI Raid Targets For-Profit School in Florida: Was This Necessary? (Ifrah Law):
“When you hear of FBI agents descending upon a place, you might think of a hostage situation, a drug raid, or the penetration of a terrorist cell. But you probably wouldn’t assume that those armed agents were working with the U.S. Department of Education on a raid on a Florida for-profit college.” Read on»
Lawmakers Ask CFPB to Examine Student Debit Cards (BuckleySandler LLP):
“Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Representative George Miller (D-CA) sent letters to the CFPB and the Department of Education requesting that those agencies examine the practices associated with bank-affiliated student debit cards. The letters cite a recent U.S. PIRG report that identified ‘troubling practices’ with these products, including alleged use of improper fees and misleading marketing.” Read on»
Lawmakers Want CFPB Input on Use of College Debit Cards to Disburse Financial Aid (Ballard Spahr LLP):
“… the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund’s report on the use of debit cards to disburse federal financial aid to college students … found that nearly 900 colleges and universities have agreements with financial institutions under which debit cards are issued to students to access any balance of their financial aid remaining after amounts for tuition and fees have been deducted.” Read on»
Public Charter Schools - Second Edition (Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP):
“The public charter school movement has evolved for two decades, yet the challenge of securing affordable facilities continues to confront nearly every charter school. The landscape of solutions now includes government-sponsored, private sector, and collaborative programs that provide facilities or facilities financing. Borrowing through the issuance of tax-exempt bonds has emerged as an effective option to obtain low-cost facilities financing.” Read on»
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