law

Court: Mich. schools forced to bear reporting costs
BY DAWSON BELL • FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU • JULY 7, 2008
LANSING – Michigan state government has been shortchanging local school districts millions of dollars a year by failing to reimburse the cost of enhanced reporting requirements under education reforms enacted in the last decade, the state Court of Appeals ruled today.

The Safe Schools Coalition jammed the rotunda today to demand action on anti-bullying bills that passed the House last year.
The measure is called "Matt's Safe School Law," named after Matt EPLING, an East Lansing eighth-grader who took his own life in 2002 after severe hazing incidents. HB 4162 and HB 4091 are before the Senate Education Committee and activists called on Sen. Wayne KUIPERS (R-Holland) to take them up.

By Robert Ebersole, Assistant Legal Counsel
Michigan Association of School Boards

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, OH, has recently released an opinion, Brannum v Overton County School Board, ___F3d___, 2008 WL 441436, that concerns the use of surveillance cameras in a school setting. The decision clearly states that there are limits on the use of video surveillance technology in the school setting.

MASSP Association Update for March 10 2008 - Your role as a bargaining association.

Tom Derderain Labor and Job contracts presentation, your role as a bargaining association.

Listen Here

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that
a student's First Amendment speech rights were not violated
when a Michigan elementary school principal denied the
student's request to sell candy canes containing a religious
message. Curry v School Dist of the City of Saginaw, 2008
US App LEXIS 881 (January 16, 2008), affirming 452 F
Supp 2d 723 (ED Mich, 2006).
The issue, as articulated by the Sixth Circuit, was
"whether an elementary school student has a First Amendment
right to promote an unsolicited religious message