In one of the first cases on the issue since the COVID-19 pandemic began, on June 12, 2021, a federal judge in Texas dismissed a lawsuit challenging Houston Methodist Hospital’s…
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On June 23, 2021, the 49th anniversary of the passage of Title IX, the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) issued a Dear Educator Letter regarding…
On May 30, 2021, both the Senate and the House passed House Bill 219 (“HB 219”), amending the Illinois School Code regarding the use of isolated timeout, timeout, and physical…
This year, amendments were made to the Illinois Human Rights Act for the purpose of extending new protections to job applicants and employees with criminal convictions. The amendments require employers…
ISBE’s recent resolution on remote learning previewed the role of remote learning in the 2021-2022 school year and has prompted school districts to re-examine their options.
The Seventh Circuit upheld a Wisconsin district court’s dismissal of a middle school student’s claims of sexual harassment and sexual discrimination, finding that the school’s response to the claims did not rise to the level of deliberate indifference as defined by the August 2020 Title IX regulations.
A reminder that public bodies cannot simply withhold entire documents just because some of the contents are exempt. An Illinois appellate court found that the City of Chicago could not completely withhold a police “action plan” regarding a planned response to the verdict in the highly publicized trial of Jason Van Dyke, where it contained both exempt and non-exempt content.
In a non-binding opinion, the Public Access Counselor found that a city council violated the Open Meetings Act when it muted public commenters at a meeting held via video conference, because its rule against abusive language was content-based and therefore violated the OMA and the First Amendment rights of the non-disruptive speakers.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has announced a comprehensive review of Title IX regulations and guidance in response to President Biden’s prior Executive Order.
The City of Hillsboro was found to have violated the OMA when it entered closed session to discuss an issue involving a sewer main that the City Council believed could result in litigation. However, because litigation was neither pending, probable, nor imminent, the discussion of the issue in closed session was improper.