Legal Compliance Training Modules

The Compliance Training modules provide up-to-date information and training on the legal requirements that must be followed to ensure that the actions of staff and the Governing Board comply with the law, protect the rights of students, and reduce the risk of potential liability.

This training provides participants with an overview of the 2013 AB1729 Amendments, which were passed to support districts in reducing the use of exclusionary discipline for all students and minimize the disproportionate impact on students of color and other marginalized groups. Participants will also review the Education Code disciplinary code of conduct, with a focus on examining specific code sections that regularly confuse administrators. The training also examines the legal requirements to support expulsion recommendations, including the distinction between discretionary and mandatory recommendation for expulsion and the evidentiary requirement for “secondary findings.”

Participants will review the process of conducting a disciplinary investigation, including the applicable legal standard to conduct searches of students and their belongings. Participants will also review how to create an expulsion packet, present an expulsion case, including understanding the burden of proof, introducing evidence, and questioning witnesses. Lastly, participants will discuss the role of the administrative panel and the requirement to create findings of fact for the Governing Board.

This training provides participants with an understanding of the procedural safeguards that must be provided when disciplining students with special needs. Participants will learn how special education discipline works with the general education discipline process in order to ensure that the rights of the students are protected

What is your district doing to proactively minimize the number of suspensions leading to expulsions and to ensure that students of color are not disproportionately represented in the expulsion data? This training will examine common institutional practices that perpetuate the disproportionate discipline of students of color. Participants will have the opportunity to examine a district’s discipline data, disaggregated by race, and use it as a starting point to begin an open and honest discussion about the role race plays in disciplinary actions. Participants will also be shown examples of model practices that have resulted in a reduction in the number of disciplinary referrals and increased academic achievement for students of color. The trainer will discuss ways to minimize the potential disparate disciplinary treatment of students based on race.

Teachers have always known that when students act out in class, it may have nothing to do with school and everything to do with what’s happened to them at home. Recent research on the impact of child trauma on learning, cognition, and behavior not only supports this key insight, but provides teachers with new ways of thinking about the neurobiology and physiology of student conduct that can radically improve classroom and school climate. This session will examine how a trauma-informed approach dropped Lincoln High suspensions by 85% and discuss the science behind why child trauma makes students act out in school. Participants will discuss why a systems approach works for individual students and how trauma-sensitive schools can become an equity-building tool. Lastly, the session will provide some practical tools for creating Trauma-Sensitive Practices.

School districts need to shift from the mindset of “getting rid of the bad kids.” As long as the students continue to reside in your district’s attendance area, they are YOUR kids. This session will examine expulsion rehabilitation plans and readmission procedures and how they can be designed and monitored to rehabilitate instead of exclude. We will provide some scenarios to work through and ask that you come with some of your own

When students are recommended for expulsion, it is often the responsibility of the site administrator to present the case before the Administrative Panel or Governing Board. The quasi-judicial nature of the expulsion hearing process requires that administrators have at least a basic understanding of the required components of presenting a case, including understanding the burden of proof, how to introduce evidence, and how to question witnesses. This two hour training session provides school administrators with an opportunity to practice presenting an expulsion case. Administrators are provided a mock expulsion packet and are given 1 hour to review it, identify the witness they need to question and the elements of the charges they must prove, draft witness questions, and draft opening /closing statements. The administrator’s then present their “cases” before a mock hearing panel. At the end of the exercise, we debrief the activity and make recommendation for improved practice.

Many school districts retain the services of School Resource Officers (“SRO”) on their campuses, usually at a high financial cost. While there is value to having an SRO available on campus, often times Districts do not have clear guidelines for utilizing SRO’s, which often results in the over-criminalization of students. This session will outline guidelines for the creative and effective utilization of SRO’s, including strategies to increase their visibility and impact as a means to decrease student conduct that results in disciplinary removals and citations.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act is a function of general education. As a result, many of the general education staff responsible for implementing the Section 504 requirements lack the specialized training typically associated with special education, even though there are comparable procedural requirements as those found in special education. This training provides an overview of the Section 504 process, including eligibility, assessment, and child find requirements. This training is ideal for Section 504 Coordinators and any staff responsible for implementing Section 504 at school sites.

This training examines the IEP process, including eligibility, assessment, FAPE, child find, procedural timelines, and procedures governing the IEP meeting process. Participants will gain a basic understanding of the IEP process and the procedures that govern the process.

This training examines the laws that govern disclosure of confidential student information obtained during the course of receiving counseling services by a staff person with a PPS credential as well as the mandated reporting requirement that may be implicated in the process