School Law Issues Carrying Over
Despite these new requirements, there are also several legal changes from the last year that will be fully implemented in the 2020-2021 school year that may require changes to policy (if not already), handbooks, and practice:
- PA 101-591 requires an appeals process for unsatisfactory teacher evaluations, which involves both PERA Joint Committee and bargaining procedures, which must be in place for the 2020-2021 school year.
- PA 101-370 , effective January 1, 2020, expands Ashley's Law so that a school must allow a school nurse or school administrator to administer a medical cannabis infused product to a student who is a registered qualifying patient. Nurse or administrator must first complete ISBE training.
- PA 101-455 creates a new 105 ILCS 128/45 (Section 45 of the Illinois School Safety Drill Act) related to threat assessment procedures. Each school district must implement a threat assessment procedure as part of its targeted school violence prevention policies. The procedure must include the creation of a threat assessment team, which must include at least one administrator, one teacher, one school counselor, one school psychologist, one school social worker, and one law enforcement official.
- PA 101-620 contained numerous provisions amending the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act, including regulating how union dues authorizations and revocations are handled, limiting information about employees that may be shared with third parties, and requiring that the school district provide the union with certain information (within 10 calendar days from the beginning of every school term and every 30 calendar days thereafter in the school term, in an Excel file or other editable digital file format agreed to by the exclusive representative, the employee's name, job title, worksite location, home ad-dress, work telephone numbers, identification number if available, and any home and personal cellular telephone numbers on file with the employer, date of hire, work email address, and any personal email address on file with the employer).