student management and hr: hot topics in law and policy

Copyright © 2013. Education Compliance Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

By Peggy A. Burns, Esq. and Mark Hinson, SPHR

Student Management and HR: Hot Topics in Law and Policy

Education Compliance Group, Inc.P.O. Box 221Lafayette, CO 80026

(888) 604-6141

www.educationcompliancegroup.com

Hiring Practices That Support Your Goals

Education Compliance Group, Inc. www.educationcompliancegroup.com 303.604.6141

• Background checks

• The 3-legged stool:

‣ Job Descriptions

- What are the essential functions?

‣ Evaluations

- What is their role in hiring?

‣ Compensation

Hiring Practices That Support Your Goals, contd.• What are the necessary “soft skills”?

• Hiring beyond a CDL

• Examining your hiring process: Where is your time and money being spent? What needs to be changed?


Key Uses for Job Descriptions

• Recruitment• Interviewing• Orienting• Training• Evaluating• Wage and Compensation Surveys


Legal Requirements

• Fair Labor Standards Act

‣ Minimum Wage

‣ Work Week and 40 hours/Overtime

‣ Exempt Status

‣ Non-Exempt Status


Legal Requirements• Equal Pay Act of 1963 – “… equal pay for substantially equal work

requiring equal skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions …”

• Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act – Title VII prohibits discrimination in employment based on race, color, sex, religion or national origin.

• Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 – Requires job descriptions to specify “elements of the job that endanger health, or are considered unsatisfactory or distasteful to the majority of the population.”

• Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 – Requires the employer to identify, examine and communicate job content suggesting a process to focus on essential functions in terms of their outcomes.

• Collective Bargaining Demands – A longstanding union demand is “equal pay for equal work.”


Traditional Elements of Job Descriptions

• Job Identification• Job Summary• Job Duties and Responsibilities• Job Specifications (minimum qualifications)


Impact of ADA for Job Duties, Responsibilities and Specifications

• Requisite information in terms of:

‣ Nature

‣ Frequency

‣ Intensity

‣ Duration, impact and

‣ Importance to the position


Job Analysis

• Step 1 – Obtain Job Information

‣ Types of jobs to be analyzed

‣ Characteristics of the workforce and organizational culture

‣ The type/level of job analysis to be performed


Job Analysis

• Step 2 – AnalyzeThis is the core of the process

‣ Main purposes of the position are revealed

‣ Essential functions are distinguished

‣ Vs. marginal

‣ Raw job information becomes key facts


Job Analysis

• Step 3 – Document the Job

‣ Creation of the job description


Lightning Round• Just this week, you learned about serious allegations of

student-to-student sexual harassment and abuse on a vehicle that transports students with disabilities. The driver reported that she heard and saw things that alerted her to a concern.

• She pulled the bus over and radioed for dispatch. Despite her knowledge that aides are in short supply, she asked that an aide be assigned to the bus as soon as possible

• An aide is assigned the next day – no time for training, and you shared little because of confidentiality. Now, parents of both students involved claim the aide forcefully and painfully separated them when she saw them acting inappropriately.


Staff Training and Student Management• Specific needs of the students

‣ What disability-related issues will impact transportation?

‣ Are additional, trained individuals necessary?

• Provision of information

• Use of equipment

• Coordination and documentation

• Attentiveness


Training “Musts” for Drivers and Attendants• The importance of adhering to district and department

policies and procedures about student management For which does the employer have zero tolerance?

• Specific training in behavior management techniques Why? Provision of only general training on behavior management

where individual student w/ a disability presents significant and regular disruptive behaviors FAPE failure

Why? Numerous cases demonstrate drivers and monitors will use extreme and unlawful measures if they don’t have knowledge of effective strategies

• Other specific topics (see outline)


Steps to take• Why has an aide been assigned? What are the

implications?‣ You’ve assigned an aide to all vehicles that transport

students with special needs. The only information made available to transportation about “C.R.” is that he is to “Sit in the front seat alone.”

‣ What direction would you give to the attendant on C.R.’s bus?

• What reporting mechanisms exist? Do aides know how to use them?

• What particular tasks are the aide’s responsibility? How do you know they’re being accomplished?

Training “Musts” for Dispatchers• We tell drivers to call dispatch for instruction in lieu of

using discretion in many instances. Do we know what dispatchers will say? Have they thought about these calls?


You Be The Judge



Stormi Dawn, an 18-year-old student with an intellectual disability, has sued the district for injuries sustained when being put off the bus. She claims that one girl on the bus – who seemed like she didn’t care what the kids were saying to her -- was regularly being picked on by the other kids. Stormi complained to the driver, who told her to sit down. The route supervisor supported the driver’s actions. The next week, Stormi verbally chided the bullies from her seat after, again, being told to sit down. When that was ineffective, she got out of her seat, and began to hit the aggressors. The driver called dispatch, who told her to pull over and get Stormi off the bus.

While walking home, Stormi was the victim of an attack by a sexual offender who lived nearby. The man’s address had been identified by dispatch earlier that month. The Dawns sued the district, the company with whom the district contracted, and the individual transportation personnel involved.

Anticipation of Behavioral Issues• In the case of a child

whose behavior impedes his learning or that of others, IEP team considers, when appropriate, strategies to address that behavior

• Disciplinary histories may warrant conduct or safety plans

Appropriate intervention

• Policy considerations

‣ Use of touch

‣ Who needs to know?

‣ Excessive force

• Drivers, attendants, and supervisors must react reasonably to what they see, hear, and learn

Students with Special Needs

• Applying the same disciplinary consequences that you would for a non-disabled student under the same circumstances doesn’t always involve red tape

• Bus suspensions are the issue

• Functional Behavioral Assessment of bus conduct may be useful

• Safety trumps all

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

The driver says to a student with an emotional disability. . .• When the student who begs you to let him get off at a

different stop: “If you want to get off the bus you’ll have to jump, cause I’m not going to stop it.”

• “I didn’t hear the fighting or see the choking – that route is a circus. Let’s just say those kids make their own rules up.”

The Headlines You Never Want to Read!

Imagine this headline

Former school bus driver found guilty of child endangerment. Marjorie Jones, the former ABC Company bus driver who duct-taped the mouth of a wailing, cognitively impaired 7-year-old girl, was found guilty Friday. The prosecution’s case hinged largely on testimony of psychologist Jeff Martin who indicated that an authority figure placing duct tape over the mouth of the girl, who is unable to speak, constitutes mental abuse. The girl is a “mouth-breather” who suffers from congested sinuses. Martin stated frequently that Jones’ action occurred in this context: the girl was “trapped in a seat, bound by straps across her chest, shoulders and upper thighs.”

Duct tape, contd.• Jones has contended she was playing with the girl. “I was

entertaining her,” Jones said. “She was laughing.” Jones described a child who demanded nonstop attention and would hurt herself if it wasn’t received. “She would hurt herself, pull out her hair and take out her braces, if we didn’t entertain her,” Jones said.

Lightning Round


District’s Personnel Practices Scrutinized in Light of Attendant’s Actions• Student stands up on moving bus, throws paper and broken

pencils. The driver keeps driving, the attendant keeps yelling, and the students don’t stop.

• The attendant starts hitting kids, including two who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The two innocent ones are not badly hurt, but their mother sues.

• The lawsuit claims that the district encouraged, participated, authorized or approved of the attendant’s actions.

• You represent the parent: What facts about the district’s personnel practices would help make the parent’s case?


How will this look?• A driver says “I’ve got lives at stake and if kids are

screaming and jumping up and making this kind of noise and its causing my attention to detour from the road and the other 9 mirrors I have to continuously watch, then, yeah, something has to be done about it.” She gave students the choice of being duct-taped or being given an administrative write-up. The kids chose tape.

• What hiring practices are likely to be examined? What evaluation processes will come under the microscope? If this is a veteran driver with an unblemished record, what steps would you take?

For each of these headlines, what’s the HR backstory?• “Who’s the adult: Driver sprays mace in student’s face”

• “Driver disabled camera before mistreating handicapped child”

• “Cell phone video captures driver’s cursing”

• “Aide is silent while driver takes female student into his own home off-route”

Problem employees• How do you lose a staff member that needs to get “lost”?

• When are failures to manage student behavior appropriately “no tolerance issues”?

• What steps can you take to increase the likelihood of a successful termination?

Lightning Round


PO Box 221Lafayette, CO 80026

888.604.6141www.educationcompliancegroup.com

Education Compliance Group, Inc.

student management and hr: hot topics in law and policy

Documents

job analysisstep

job descriptionswhat

job content

marginalraw job information

job informationtypes

equal pay

equal work

equal skill