The Toolbox is an all day training program designed to help educators serve students with disabilities well and in compliance with the law, even when those students engage in disruptive or violent behavior.  The Toolbox is based on our existing framework for discipline, and thus includes all of the traditional tools of student discipline, such as out of school suspension, in-school suspension, and removal to DAEP.

But the Toolbox is completely consistent with the use of proactive, positive measures designed to reduce our reliance on the more traditional, exclusionary practices.  It’s very clear that public policy is pushing schools to move away from “exclusionary” practices by increasing the effectiveness of proactive and positive measures. In the Toolbox, we talk a lot about the most important tool in your arsenal—the use of a Behavior Improvement Plan (BIP).

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to identify the ways in which they will help local school districts to reduce “the overuse of discipline practices that remove students from the classroom.”  On July 26^th, 62 members of Congress wrote to Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, urging her to continue to assist states and schools to move away from exclusionary practices.  The letter to Ms. DeVos asks for specific information about how the Department plans to implement this portion of ESSA.

It’s a good thing that 62 members of Congress are pressuring DOE on this issue. It’s unfortunate that all 62 are Democrats and thus, the issue could become another political football in which the “previous administration” is compared with the “current administration.”  I wonder if the Democrats even tried to get some Republicans on board with them. This seems like a very good issue to bring the parties together. Keeping kids in the classroom is not something that should divide the Dems from the GOPers.

Nor should it divide educators.  The lawyers in our firm are eager to train your staff on the Toolbox, with an emphasis on the positive things we can do for kids to keep them in the classroom.  If you are interested in a Toolbox training, please let us know.

DAWG BONE: USE YOUR TOOLS PROACTIVELY, POSITIVELY.

Tomorrow: a new bill that should help your career and technology program….

This one is designed to make the settlement of lawsuits against a governmental unit more transparent. The bill says that if the settlement is for $30,000 or more, and is funded by tax revenue, or the proceeds of an insurance policy purchased with tax revenue, the settlement agreement cannot require the plaintiff to keep quiet about it.  Any settlement in violation of this statute is “void and unenforceable.”

This will be an interesting one for the lawyers to deal with. It is very common for settlement agreements to include a confidentiality provision.  We read in the newspaper that the school district settled the case, while denying any wrongdoing, and that the terms of the deal are not to be disclosed, except as might be required under the Public Information Act.  Settlement agreements in the future will have to take this new law into account.

The statute goes into effect on September 1 of this year, but will not apply to lawsuits that are pending at that time, or filed shortly thereafter.   The law says that it applies “only with respect to a claim or action that is based on a cause of action that ACCRUES after the effective date of this Act.”  (Emphasis added).

DAWG BONE: WE CONTINUE TO PROMOTE GREATER TRANSPARENCY.

Tomorrow: Toolbox Tuesday!!

Students of politics may study this short piece of legislation in the future.  It’s a new tactic in the covert warfare between state and local politicians.

The politicians at the state level sometimes pass laws that require the locals to bear the financial burden. The locals complain of “unfunded mandates.”

SB 693 is not exactly an unfunded mandate. It’s more clever than that.  It’s a “pass the shame” mandate.  It’s all about seat belts on the buses.  The law says that if a district buys a model 2018 bus (or later), the bus has to have seat belts, unless the local board holds a public meeting and officially votes not to do so due to budgetary constraints.

Senator Throttlebottom and his colleagues under the capitol dome will self-righteously declare that this is not an unfunded mandate. After all, if the local board does not have the money for this, all they have to do is say so.  Which is true. But the bill cynically makes the local politicians face the music on this. The hard choice is left to the locals.  The board has to publicly announce that it doesn’t have the money for seatbelts on the buses, which will raise the ire of taxpayers with every subsequent expenditure.

You can hear it now: board members are going to a convention?  And they couldn’t afford seatbelts?  New band uniforms?  And they couldn’t afford seatbelts?  Pay raise for the superintendent? And they couldn’t afford to protect the safety of the children on the bus?

It’s cynical. It’s clever. And it will work.  It will get seat belts on the bus….at local expense.

DAWG BONE: THE WAR CONTINUES….

Have a good weekend, folks. Start of school is getting close!

HB 22: A to F and Other Accountability Issues….

This one is the major re-write of the accountability system.  The big news is that we are compressing from five domains to three: Student Achievement, School Progress, and Closing the Gap. Other key features:

*The Commissioner will study the feasibility of incorporating an indicator regarding co-curricular and extracurricular activities. Don’t look for any swift movement on this.  The report to the legislature is not due until December 1, 2022.

*If you get a D you will no longer be considered “unacceptable.”  You will be “needs improvement.”  Only F-rated schools will be “unacceptable.

*Ratings of the performance of your campus for this school year (2017-18) will be publicly released in August, 2018, but will be limited to: “improvement required” or “met standard.”

*Whatever method is used to rate performance must permit every district and campus to get an A.  Thus the system cannot be designed such that the lowest 5% automatically get a grade lower than A.

*There are a lot of provisions in this bill about who has to be counted as a dropout.

*Thankfully, the Commissioner will provide all of us with a document in a “simple, accessible format” that explains all this complex stuff in a way that we can all understand, and distribute to parents, the media, the Chamber of Commerce, etc.

*The Commissioner will adopt rules whereby a school district can assign ratings to each

campus, if the district first gets the Commissioner’s approval of the district’s “local accountability plan.”  The ratings must still be A to F.

*The bill contains a new section detailing exactly what happens to a district or campus rated D.

DAWG BONE: LOOKS LIKE A TO F IS HERE TO STAY.

Tomorrow: Seat belts on the bus….

SB 1152 provides another “excused absence” for certain students.  It applies to those who are 17 or older. They can get up to four days of excused absence for the purpose of enlisting in the U.S. armed forces, or the Texas National Guard.

I just “googled” the following question: “How long does it take to enlist in the army?”  The answer I got: one to two days. So I guess if you live in Notclosetoanything, Texas, you might need to tack on a day of travel on each end. So you would need four days out of school.

What did we do before Google???

DAWG BONE: IF YOU ARE HEADED OFF TO THE SERVICE, MAYBE YOU WON’T EVEN CARE IF IT’S “EXCUSED.”

Tomorrow: A to F….

On Tuesdays here we highlight The Toolbox—an all day program focused on discipline issues with students with disabilities. One of the “tools” in the Toolbox is Tool #5—the Removal of a Student due to “Special Circumstances.”  One of those “special circumstances” is the possession of a “dangerous weapon.”

So in that context, we need to think about HB 1935, which makes a significant change in our laws pertaining to knives.  Our definition of “illegal knife” has always included daggers, dirks, stilettos, poniards, bowie knives, swords and spears, along with any knife with a blade of more than 5.5 inches. This law simplifies things. Now, an “illegal knife” will be called a “location-restricted knife” and the definition is simple: any knife with a blade of more than 5.5 inches.

What’s confusing to a lot of people is that the federal definition of a “dangerous weapon” is not the same as the Texas definition of an “illegal weapon.”  Under federal law, a knife is a “dangerous weapon” if it has a blade of more than 2.5 inches.  So a knife with a three-inch blade would be “dangerous” under federal law, but neither “illegal” nor “location-restricted” under state law.  Tool #5 authorizes the principal to order the immediate removal of a student who possesses a knife with a blade of three inches, even though the possession of that knife does not violate state law.

This change in terminology should be reflected in your Student Code of Conduct. Our firm has a model Code that has been updated to reflect this change, along with all the other changes in state law. If interested in the Walsh Gallegos Model Code of Conduct, just contact any of the lawyers in our firm.

DAWG BONE: WE NEVER DID KNOW WHAT A PONIARD WAS ANYWAY, SO GOOD RIDDANCE!

Tomorrow: How long does it take to enlist in the military?

This week we are going to continue to look at the new legislation that we will be dealing with this year.  And remember: all of these new laws will be discussed at my Back to School programs which are offered in nine locations from September 11 to October 5. Go to www.legaldigest.com for specific dates and venues, and to register.

Today, a quick review of HB 357, which is short and sweet.  It adds another category of children who are eligible for free Pre-K.  Many of us think it would be a wonderful thing if Pre-K could be offered to every child in Texas, but our legislators are not willing to go there.  However, they seem to add another new category of eligible three-year olds with every session.  This year’s entry: children of people who are eligible for the Star of Texas Award. The Star of Texas Award goes to peace officers, firefighters and emergency medical first responders who are seriously injured or killed in the line of duty.

Please note, this applies to the children of those who are “eligible” for this award, even if they have not actually received it.  Question: why are teachers not eligible for the Star of Texas Award?

DAWG BONE: TEACHERS GET SERIOUSLY INJURED ON THE JOB TOO—WHY ARE THEY NOT ELIGIBLE?

Tomorrow: Toolbox Tuesday looks at the new law re: “location-restricted” knives.