July is the month where the proverbial “changing of the guard” happens for school administrators. With an influx of new superintendents, we decided it was time to remind you of all the “fun” paperwork and political hoopla you should put on your to-do list.
Annual Trainings
Behavioral and Mental Health Training: All public school employees who interact with students and any other “appropriate personnel” as determined by the superintendent must receive at least one hour of behavioral and mental health training with a focus on suicide awareness and prevention training each year. NDE’s website includes a list of approved training materials.
Seizure Safe Schools Act: Every certificated school employee must participate in a minimum of one hour of self-study review of seizure disorder materials at least once in every two school years. NDE has materials that have been approved for this self-study on its website. Make sure that you keep a record of each employee’s training, both for compliance when NDE does reviews and for legal defense purposes if it ever were to be necessary.
Concussion Awareness. Technically the Nebraska Concussion Awareness Act only requires that schools make concussion training “available” for all coaches of athletic teams. We strongly encourage schools to require coaches to review the training and your school’s Return to Learn Protocols on an annual basis.
Other Required Trainings
School Resource Officer/Administrator Training. Every SRO and every administrator in a building which has an SRO must complete 20 hours of Nebraska-specific training. The training required by Section 79-2701 is Nebraska specific, so law enforcement officers who have had training from the National Association of School Resource Officers or similar organizations must also complete this training. Administrators who have SROs in their buildings must also complete the SRO training. KSB School Law has this training available via video on demand (and we won’t tell anyone if you watch it at 1.5x speed).
Dating Violence. The Lyndsey Ann Burke Act requires all school staff to be trained in dating violence. Although this is not an annual requirement, it is an easy training to overlook when staff turns over. NDE has resources for training on dating violence. If a KSB attorney has done an inservice for your staff, the materials likely included something that can be counted as dating violence training.
Title IX Training. Even though the Biden Administration intends to release new Title IX regulations in October, all members of your Title IX team need to be trained on the current Title IX processes. If you have a new staff member who will serve as a Title IX Coordinator, investigator, decision-maker or appellate decision-maker, check to see if you can document their receipt of this training. If they were trained at their prior district, you will need to post the materials from that training on your website. If they have not been trained, KSB has video on demand training on the current regulations (and we’ll also have tons of resources on the new regulations when they come out).
All Staff Title IX Training. The current regulations do not technically require every staff member to be trained on Title IX, but every staff member can impose liability on the district if they do not respond to sexual harassment in the (counter-intuitive) way the regulations require. The Biden administration has telegraphed its intention to require all staff to be trained. Therefore, school districts should use their discretion on training all staff. Knowing that you may need to re-train everyone on the new regs, you might forego this all staff training as a back-to-school item. However, we are lawyers and we always think more training is better. ALICAP has video on demand on this topic, as does KSB. (We just don’t want you to blame us when you have to re-do that training later this school year.)
Driver of Pupil Transportation Vehicle Training. Drivers of pupil transportation vehicles must receive Level I instructional training in the operation of vehicles that transport school children. A “refresher” Level II course must be taken every five years after the Level I course. A “waiver” exam for the Level I & II instructional training course is available. The waivers are good for 60 calendar days during which time the driver must take the Level I or II course. NDE’s website includes a link to the schedule and location of training offered throughout the year at various sites in Nebraska.
Budget Process Reminders
This is our second year with the “postcard bill,” Neb. Rev. Stat. 77-1633 (the joint public hearing law) to ensure compliance. This statute was revised during the 2023 unicameral session to require an elected official from the political subdivision to be present at the hearing. Additionally, bond principal and interest are now excluded. (See LB243 and LB727 for more information.)
For school boards interested in voting (pursuant to LB 243) to increase the district’s base growth percentage for purposes of determining its property tax request authority, we have developed a packet of resources for boards to take that action. These resources include (1) a memo summarizing the steps that must be met in order to use this method, (2) a meeting notice, (3) a sample agenda item, and (4) a resolution for the board to consider and approve if it desires to approve such an increase.
If you need to amend the current fiscal year’s budget, the amendment should be made prior to exceeding the budget, and a hearing must occur prior to August 30. (See Neb. Rev. Stat. 13-511.) Also, consolidated data collections for the Superintendent Pay Transparency Act (which includes submitting the entire approved contract on the NDE portal) are due on or before August 1.
Policy Reminders
Most of these policy reviews probably occurred at your July board meeting. But just in case you’re unsure, here is a list of the policies which boards are required to review annually.
Student Fees Policy: According to Nebraska law, the board must review the amount of money collected from students and review the waivers of student fees provided to students under its student fee policy. It must also hold a public hearing on the proposed student fee policy for the upcoming school year.
Bullying: The board must review its bullying policy.
Teacher Evaluation: The District must communicate with staff members in writing about the evaluation process to comply with Rule 10.
Safety and Security Committee: Per Rule 10, the district’s safety and security committee must meet at least annually to prepare and/or review safety and security plans and procedures.
Attendance and Excessive Absenteeism: The board must annually review its attendance policy at a board meeting.
Student Academic Performance: To comply with Rule 10, the district must distribute an annual report to patrons about the district’s academic performance.
Multicultural Education: Similarly, the board must receive annually a report about the district’s multicultural education curriculum.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call Karen, Steve, Bobby, Coady, Jordan, Tyler, or Sara at 402-804-8000 or send us all an email at ksb@ksbschoollaw.com.