• NJASA Legal Department Research Services - May 2025


    School board members are involved in making critical decisions that affect school district operations. These decisions can include personnel matters, financial matters, labor contracts, and contracts with third parties, among other issues. As a result of the decisions they make, matters they vote on, or statements they make, board members may be named as defendants or respondents in civil, administrative, and/or criminal cases. Thus, school officials must know about board members’ ability to be reimbursed for legal expenses in defending such matters. This Administrative Guide provides guidance to school officials on the Indemnification of Board Members.

    This month, the School News Briefs reviews three new cases, including one in which the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division affirmed the order enjoining a board of education from enforcing parental notification policies implicating transgender students, pending a decision on the merits, since the policies likely violate the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination.

    The Special Education Bulletin also reviews three new cases including one in which the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey affirmed an ALJ’s decision concluding that a board provided a FAPE to a student who was classified with a Specific Learning Disability, and denying the parents’ request for reimbursement for the unilateral placement of the child in a private school. 

     

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