The Supreme Court has issued a ruling in the matter of Mahanoy Area School Dist. v. B.L., finding in favor of the high school student disciplined for her use of offensive language in a social media post made off campus, outside of school hours and away from the school’s premises.

The New Jersey Appellate Division issued a decision on January 12, 2021, in the matter of Chris Doe v. Rutgers University, which offers some clarity to the obligation of school districts to respond to certain Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”) requests for student records.

The New Jersey Department of Health issued COVID-19 guidance and education materials for child care and K-12 schools on March 04, 2020.

With new amendments to the Law Against Discrimination (“LAD”) signed into law last month, New Jersey became the third state in the country to prohibit discrimination against a person’s hair style. 

Last month, the Appellate Division determined that provisions in a teachers' union contract that allowed two teachers to collect their full pay and benefits for days when they did not teach but instead performed union duties were unenforceable.

Earlier this month, Governor Phil Murphy signed a bill creating a four-year pilot program to study the effects of a later start time for New Jersey high schools. This bill comes after a 2014 report by the American Academy of Pediatrics that reported sleep deprivation in adolescents with one contributing factor being early school start times.

In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, we discussed the circumstances that led to the planned phase-out of the London Inter-bank Offered Rate, commonly referred to as “LIBOR” and the proposed replacement rate known as the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”). In this last part of the series, we will present the proposed language recommended by the Alternative Reference Rate Committee (“ARRC”) to be used in new contracts that reference LIBOR.

Many school district employees want to use their paid time off before going on unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), in order to extend their total leave time. Many school districts might allow this “piggy-backing” of leave time, but doing so may result in a violation of the FMLA and exposure to potential liability.

In a procedural decision which some are viewing with surprise and which others are viewing as a civil rights victory, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving transgender students using the bathrooms and locker facilities that align with their gender identities.

On January 17, 2019, Governor Phil Murphy and Legislative Leaders announced the collective decision to raise the minimum wage rate in New Jersey from $8.85 per hour to $15 per hour for most businesses over a five (5) year period. On January 24, 2019, the New Jersey Assembly's Labor Committee approved legislation (Assembly Bill A-15) that would implement the minimum wage increase. If approved by other Legislative Committees, passed by both the full Assembly and Senate, and signed into law by the Governor in its present form, key provisions of Bill A-15 include the following