On January 25, we blogged about the record request from ACLU of Nebraska that many schools received. We’re not yet sure if it was sent to every school in Nebraska. If you didn’t receive the request from the ACLU, please exit the blog post and enjoy the rest of your day! If you did receive the request, read on…
The ACLU listed 11 separate requests, mostly pertaining to SRO programs and use of seclusion and restraint. If you received the request, first you should consider whether or not you actually have an “SRO” assigned to your school or any specific school building.
In order to have an “SRO” as defined by Nebraska law, the officer must be assigned specifically to your school as the officer’s “primary duty.” While that’s not defined, we think the best starting point is to consider if a local officer is assigned to be in your school at all. Do they have regular hours they spend in the school? Or do they just drop in from time-to-time (even regularly) while on their normal patrol duties? If they are assigned to your school or a specific school building and spend the majority of their duty time working with you in the school, you probably have an SRO. Most situations should be pretty clear, but if not, contact your school attorney to decide.
Please note that even if you don’t have an SRO and you did receive the request, not all of the 11 items requested are tied to having an SRO. For example, request #9 asks for “[a]ny and all documents reflecting current policies and practices with respect to the restraint and seclusion of students.” Responding to the limited requests that don’t include an SRO is still something you’ll have to do.
Instead of the usual 4 business days, the ACLU has given schools until February 20, 2024 to respond. You’ve got time, but there’s no time like the present to form a plan for your response.
As we promised in our last post, we’ve put together some guidance for our clients to help them respond, specifically focused on walking you through the SRO law, restraint and seclusion legal obligations, and which documents are possibly responsive. We plan to charge a set small fee for the guidance memo and a template of the letter you can use to respond to the ACLU. This flat rate helps to spread the cost for responding around across schools and also maintains attorney-client privilege for your response. You will have to consider legal implications and our advice for your school specifically, and by sending it to you individually, the ACLU doesn’t get a chance to see our advice to you. If you are a KSB policy subscriber and/or have used our model MOU for your SRO program (if you have one), we can point you to most of the items you’ll need to send, including specific policies. Even if you aren’t a subscriber, we’re happy to share our guidance with you. We have also reached out to Justin Knight at the Perry Law Firm to discuss the ACLU request. Both law firms agree on how to respond, and if you are a Perry Client, we’re certain Justin or another Perry attorney will be happy to assist you in crafting your response. If you are interested in KSB’s guidance and response letter template or have any questions about the request, drop one of us a line or shoot an email to all of us at ksb@ksbschoollaw.com.