Recent legislative developments will have a significant impact on self-insured governmental health plans, including self-insured plans sponsored by school districts. Specifically, 2009 Wisconsin Act 14 and 2009 Wisconsin Act 28 (better known as the Budget Bill) will implement new coverage requirements and expand the class of individuals eligible...
By D&K's School and Higher Education Law Team School districts across the state are preparing for the probable outbreak of H1N1 in their district. Unfortunately, schools are a hotbed for the spread of H1N1 influenza and children have been disproportionately impacted by the virus. Questions abound as schools consider how a school closing due...
In a decision dated December 1, 2009, the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) has decided that a municipal employer may no longer maintain existing language in a collective bargaining agreement which uses the procedures of § 62.13(5) for review of discipline police or fire department employees, if the union objects upon the...
So, you have some company secrets. What business doesn’t? You may have a confidential marketing strategy that your most aggressive competitor would covet, if only it knew that your strategy has been reduced to a private inter-office memo. Perhaps you have a closely veiled manufacturing method that an up-and-coming entrepreneur would salivate...
Governor Doyle recently signed 2009 Wisconsin Act 34 into law, which requires that preparation time be treated as a mandatory subject of bargaining. The new law reverses a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision that held that a guaranteed amount of preparation time was a permissive subject of bargaining. Dodgeland Education Association v. WERC, 250...
When Governor Doyle signed the 2009-2011 biennial budget on June 29, 2009, several basic legal protections previously available only to married couples were made available to same-sex couples. Among these legal protections is the right to exercise leave under Wisconsin’s Family and Medical Leave Act (“WFMLA”) in order to care for a domestic...
By D&K's School and Higher Education Law Team The United States Supreme Court recently determined that a school district’s strip search of a thirteen year old pupil was unconstitutional, but in the process, expressed strong support for school district officials’ right to conduct searches when they have a reasonable suspicion that contraband...
Although nearly a year passed between a teacher’s knowledge of her inaccurate salary and the filing of her grievance, the Wisconsin Supreme Court deferred to an arbitrator’s finding that her grievance was timely filed. In Baldwin-Woodville Area School District v. West Central Education Association – Baldwin-Woodville Unit, 2009 WI 51, the...
Earlier this year the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) was enacted to address the current economic challenges facing our country. Contained in the ARRA are new whistleblower protections for employees of “non-federal employers” receiving stimulus funds, including public school districts and their contractors and...
By Mary S. Gerbig On June 22, 2009 the U. S. Supreme Court confirmed that parents can seek reimbursement for the cost of private tuition under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) even if their children have not previously received special education services through a public school. Forest Grove Sch. Dist. vs. T. A., 109 LRP...
