Ask Matt - September 2011 – Enrollment, Custody, and Misconduct

1. Ask Matt - September 2011 – Enrollment, Custody, and Misconduct Matt Carver, J.D., Director of Legal Services tel - 515.267.1115 fax - 515.267.1066

2. Beginning of the Year Enrollment Issues • Who needs to timely file for open enrollment when you have creativity and a little knowledge about the system?! • The Ol’“I live in a p.o. box” trick. • Remind staff to double-check registrations to ensure a mailing address is not used as a legal residence. • The district may require some proof of residency (utility bills for that address, rental agreements, etc.). The parent/guardian may redact superfluous personal information on the bill or agreement, such as the amount of the bill.

3. Beginning of the Year Enrollment Issues • Double-check the address given to see if another student’s family lives there. You may decide to ask some questions of the other residents at the address. • Consider asking questions of the parents/guardian about why the student is enrolling in your school. • If the parents say that the student is attending for school purposes (“Your school is so much better than our old district.”), then the family may have to pay tuition. • Ask the new student some innocent questions about the new neighborhood.

4. Beginning of the Year Enrollment Issues • Consider visiting the residence. • Don’t forget that the 90 transfer rule may apply to the new student, and s/he may have to sit out of VARSITY competition for 90 school days. Practice is fine, as is participation in lower level competitions. • Remember that homeless students trump nearly every rule regarding enrollment.

5. Beginning of the Year Custody Issues • Tug of war with the student’s enrollment (One week here and one week there.) • Communicate as soon as possible with the other district. • Collectively attempt to get the parents to agree upon one district or the other. • Communicate concerns with the judge on the most recent order if the parents will not agree upon a district. • If the judge came up with this great idea s/he may have assumed the parents would live in the same district, or perhaps they formerly lived in the same district.

6. Beginning of the Year Custody Issues • Parent attempting to enroll student against custody order. • Ensure the other parent knows where the student is, unless there is a safety reason for not doing so. • Go ahead and educate the student, even if the parent appears to be violating an order. The other parent may address this issue through the courts. • Let the other parent know that you are not attempting to take sides, but just want to ensure that the student is receiving an education. • Be cognizant of the stresses this is placing on the student.

7. Beginning of the Year Custody Issues • One parent asking about location of student(s) • If you are concerned about the safety of children, err on the side of withholding information until you are able to gather additional information or get law enforcement involved. • Do not prevent one parent from receiving student information just based off of the request of another parent, unless in good faith you believe the request relates to an imminent threat to the children.

8. Employee Misconduct • Education Appropriations – HF 645 • School Employee Misconduct – Allows the BOEE to discipline an administrator for failure to file a complaint against an employee who is terminated or resigns due to an incident of alleged or actual misconduct. • The discipline may include the BoEE’s revocation of the administrator’s license. • Superintendents and AEA Chief Administrators - the obligation to make the report of misconduct to the BoEE is placed upon you and your board of directors. • Remember, the definition of MISCONDUCT is very specific.

9. Employee Misconduct • Education Appropriations – HF 645 (cont.) • School Employee Misconduct – • The bill requires a school board to put an employee on administrative leave if s/he is the subject of an investigation of alleged abuse of a student under Chapter 102. Ensure Level 1 investigator acts quickly. • If the result of the Chapter 102 investigation is that the actions of the employee constituted a crime under any other statute, the board of directors or authorities shall report the results of the investigation to the BoEE. • The BoEE will develop a curriculum that addresses the code of professional conduct, as well as provide regional training opportunities, annually.

10. Employee Misconduct • Employee Repayment of Compensation - HF 493 • This bill requires all public employees to pay back the salary received while on administrative leave if the employee was on leave due to an alleged crime and is eventually convicted of at least a class “D” felony.

11. Enrollment, Custody, Misconduct Questions ???????