Play by the Rules is a promising award winning program developed by the Alabama Center for Law & Civic Education to teach law to youth to develop their sense of civic responsibility and provide them with the tools they need to prevent crime, save lives and build safer communities.

The Play by the Rules program is proudly brought to you by the Alabama Center for Law & Civic Education. This website is funded by the Young Lawyers Section of the Alabama State Bar.

See the Connecticut site.

Free copies are available to schools. The book covers many areas often faced by Title IX Coordinators, such as:

• What is Harassment?
• What is Bullying and is it a Crime?
• What are My Rights as a Student?

The curriculum is being used by School Resource Officers.

Source: http://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm

Service Animals

The Department of Justice published revised final regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for title II (State and local government services) and title III (public accommodations and commercial facilities) on September 15, 2010, in the Federal Register. These requirements, or rules, clarify and refine issues that have arisen over the past 20 years and contain new, and updated, requirements, including the 2010 Standards for Accessible Design (2010 Standards).

Overview

This publication provides guidance on the term “service animal” and the service animal provisions in the Department’s new regulations.

• Beginning on March 15, 2011, only dogs are recognized as service animals under titles II and III of the ADA.
• A service animal is a dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability.
• Generally, title II and title III entities must permit service animals to accompany people with disabilities in all areas where members of the public are allowed to go.

How “Service Animal” Is Defined

Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.

This definition does not affect or limit the broader definition of “assistance animal” under the Fair Housing Act or the broader definition of “service animal” under the Air Carrier Access Act.

Some State and local laws also define service animal more broadly than the ADA does. Information about such laws can be obtained from the State attorney general’s office.

Where Service Animals Are Allowed

Under the ADA, State and local governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations that serve the public generally must allow service animals to accompany people with disabilities in all areas of the facility where the public is normally allowed to go. For example, in a hospital it would be inappropriate to exclude a service animal from areas such as patient rooms, clinics, cafeterias, or examination rooms. However, it may be appropriate to exclude a service animal from operating rooms or burn units where the animal’s presence may compromise a sterile environment.

Service Animals Must Be Under Control

Under the ADA, service animals must be harnessed, leashed, or tethered, unless these devices interfere with the service animal’s work or the individual’s disability prevents using these devices. In that case, the individual must maintain control of the animal through voice, signal, or other effective controls.

Inquiries, Exclusions, Charges, and Other Specific Rules Related to Service Animals

• When it is not obvious what service an animal provides, only limited inquiries are allowed. Staff may ask two questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability, and (2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform. Staff cannot ask about the person’s disability, require medical documentation, require a special identification card or training documentation for the dog, or ask that the dog demonstrate its ability to perform the work or task.
• Allergies and fear of dogs are not valid reasons for denying access or refusing service to people using service animals. When a person who is allergic to dog dander and a person who uses a service animal must spend time in the same room or facility, for example, in a school classroom or at a homeless shelter, they both should be accommodated by assigning them, if possible, to different locations within the room or different rooms in the facility.
• A person with a disability cannot be asked to remove his service animal from the premises unless: (1) the dog is out of control and the handler does not take effective action to control it or (2) the dog is not housebroken. When there is a legitimate reason to ask that a service animal be removed, staff must offer the person with the disability the opportunity to obtain goods or services without the animal’s presence.
• Establishments that sell or prepare food must allow service animals in public areas even if state or local health codes prohibit animals on the premises.
• People with disabilities who use service animals cannot be isolated from other patrons, treated less favorably than other patrons, or charged fees that are not charged to other patrons without animals. In addition, if a business requires a deposit or fee to be paid by patrons with pets, it must waive the charge for service animals.
• If a business such as a hotel normally charges guests for damage that they cause, a customer with a disability may also be charged for damage caused by himself or his service animal.
• Staff are not required to provide care or food for a service animal.

Miniature Horses

In addition to the provisions about service dogs, the Department’s revised ADA regulations have a new, separate provision about miniature horses that have been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. (Miniature horses generally range in height from 24 inches to 34 inches measured to the shoulders and generally weigh between 70 and 100 pounds.) Entities covered by the ADA must modify their policies to permit miniature horses where reasonable. The regulations set out four assessment factors to assist entities in determining whether miniature horses can be accommodated in their facility. The assessment factors are (1) whether the miniature horse is housebroken; (2) whether the miniature horse is under the owner’s control; (3) whether the facility can accommodate the miniature horse’s type, size, and weight; and (4) whether the miniature horse’s presence will not compromise legitimate safety requirements necessary for safe operation of the facility.

For more information about the ADA, please visit our website or call our toll-free number.

Daily Gazette – Swarthmore college

By Max Nesterak
April 19, 2013

Trigger Warning: This article deals with issues related to sexual violence.

After filing a complaint with the federal government against Swarthmore College for violating the Clery Act, Hope Brinn ’15 and Mia Ferguson ’15 are preparing to file a second complaint with the Department of Education (DOE) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for violating Title IX.

“The College seems to think we are above the law, that the administration is above the law, and that perpetrators of assault on this campus are above the law,” Ferguson said. “Students remain at the college that are an active threat to other people’s safety, and that’s been brought to the administrations attention, but it hasn’t been addressed.”

Brinn and Ferguson filed their first complaint early yesterday morning with testimonies from ten other students who say the College violated their rights under the Clery Act.

The Clery Act, signed in 1990, requires all colleges and universities to document and publicly disclose reports of crime on and near their campuses. The Act came in the aftermath of the tragic rape and murder of Lehigh University student Jeanne Clery in her residence hall in 1986.

In their complaint they state that the College has systematically discouraged students from reporting their crimes to local law enforcement and from going through formal judicial proceedings. They also claim that the College has consistently underreported incidents of sexual misconduct to the Annual Clery Security Report and to the College community in campus wide communications.

read more …………

OCR conducted an investigation of the Anoka-Hennepin School District to determine whether District students were subjected to peer-on-peer harassment based on not conforming to gender stereotypes, in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. OCR conducted the investigation with the U.S. Department of Justice. On March 5, 2012, the District entered into a Consent Decree in the U.S. District Court for the Minnesota District with OCR and the Department of Justice. On March 6, 2012, U.S. District Court Judge Joan N. Ericksen granted the motion to approve the Consent Decree. Pursuant to the Consent Decree, the District, has agreed to take all reasonable steps to prevent and eliminate sex-based harassment, and to respond promptly and appropriately to all reports of harassment. To that end, the District has agreed, among other things, to: (1) review and improve its policies and procedures concerning harassment to address sex-based harassment, including harassment based on gender stereotypes, by working with an Equity Consultant; (2) hire or appoint a Title IX and Equity Coordinator to ensure proper implementation of the District’s harassment policies and procedures; (3) conduct training of all District faculty, staff and students on policies and procedures for reporting and responding to harassment; (4) hire a Mental Health Consultant to assist students who are subject to harassment; (5) create an Anti-Bullying/Anti-Harassment Task Force; (6) administer an Anti-Bullying Survey once per year; (7) identify harassment “hot spots” and assign personnel to monitor these trouble areas; (8) ensure that all of its middle and high schools have a peer leadership program addressing harassment; (9) convene annual meetings between the Superintendent and students at every middle and high school in the District; and (10) provide compliance reports to DOJ and OCR each trimester during the five year term of the Decree. OCR and the Justice Department will monitor the District’s actions in implementing the Consent Decree.   Read the Press Release  PDF (114K)| Read the Resolution Letter  PDF (105K) | Read the Consent Decree  PDF(297K)

Equal Rights Advocates Demands Answers From SF Bay Area Schools Following Investigative
Report Revealing Widespread Ignorance of Title IX Requirements

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Noreen Farrell, Executive Director, nfarrell@equalrights.org

Work (415.575.2398); cell (510.701.8243)

Equal Rights Advocates Demands Answers From SF Bay Area SchoolsFollowing Investigative Report Revealing Widespread Ignorance of Title IXRequirements

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – November 1, 2012 – Equal Rights Advocates, a national non-profit group with a long history of enforcing civil rights laws in schools and workplaces,announced today its filing of formal information requests with dozens of school districts in the San Francisco Bay Area, requesting information about the school districts’ compliance with Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination by schools.

The action follows on the heels of a troubling report by the investigative unit of NBC Bay Area on October 30, 2012, which revealed widespread ignorance of and non-compliance with basicrequirements of Title IX among 200 Bay Area schools, including its requirement that schools designate a “Title IX coordinator” to receive and investigate and act upon sex discrimination and harassment complaints. The investigation reveals that principals at some Bay Area schoolswere unaware of Title IX and could not identify the school’s Title IX coordinator or if theschool even had one.  See the complete NBC Bay Area video report: “Bay Area SchoolsIgnoring Title IX?”

Equal Rights Advocates Executive Director Noreen Farrell commented: “Ignorance of Title IX’s basic requirements by school leaders forty years after its passage is shameful and it is hurtinggirls. Equal Rights Advocates hears from students and parents across California and the country who don’t know their rights, and have no idea where to turn when they face sexual harassment or other discriminatory treatment at school.”

In response to the disturbing results of the NBC investigation, Equal Rights Advocates is filing formal Public Records Act requests with dozens of school districts in the Bay Area requestingdocuments that evidence or describe their efforts to comply with Title IX, including the identityand contact information for their Title IX coordinators, any written policies and proceduresrelating to compliance with Title IX, documents relating to Title IX training programs, and the districts’ responses to any Title IX complaints that have been filed over the last three years (redacting any personal information to protect the privacy of those who are involved.)

“Our goal in collecting this information will be to identify gaps in Title IX compliance and to encourage San Francisco Bay Area school district officials to take immediate steps to bringtheir districts into compliance,” said Farrell.  ERA Legal Director Jennifer Reisch added:  “ERA intends to enforce Title IX. Millions of girls depend on it.”

About ERA: Equal Rights Advocates (ERA), founded in 1974, is a national civil rights organization dedicated to protecting and expanding economic and educational access and opportunities for women and girls. Through its campaign approach—incorporating publiceducation, legislative advocacy, and litigation—ERA seeks to assist women and girls throughout a life-long continuum: ensuring equality in their educational experience, combating sex discrimination in the workforce, and advocating for workplaces hospitable to working families. To learn more about ERA’s work, visit www.equalrights.org.

For the NBC video of their investigative reports please go to:

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Nonprofit-Demands-Answers-from-Schools-176881111.html

Journalists Expose Lack of Title IX Compliance in Bay Area Schools

from Title IX Blog by EBuz

A team of investigative reporters from the Bay Area NBC News affiliate reported this week that few area schools comply with Title IX’s requirement that districts appoint a Title IX Coordinator to oversee compliance and receive and handle complaints about discrimination and harassment on the basis of sex.  It is one of the law’s most simple and straightforward requirements, yet, school officials seem almost intent on ignoring it, as the results of the journalists’ investigation reveal.   The news team sent this email to over 200 principals in California’s Bay Area:

Most of the principals did not even respond.  And most of those who did had no idea.

Here are some of the responses:

“We don’t have a title ix coordinator”

“I think that would be me….???”

“I’m not sure who you would need to talk to.”

“I have no idea who it is. Try labor relations they should know.”

“i have no idea what title nine is, sorry.”

“I need to know who I am talking to before I send that information.”

In a follow up meeting with a spokesperson for one of the districts, the San Francisco Unified School District, the reporters found out the name and position of the district’s Title IX Coordinator, but confirmed that her name and contact information does not appear in writing in any place accessible to someone with a grievance, as the law requires.

A national nonprofit, Equal Rights Advocates, followed up on the news team’s report by adding pressure on school districts to comply.  ERA sent 100 schools a request for confirmation that they have a Title IX Coordinator, and that the person as well as the procedures for filing harassment and discrimination complaints are published and available to the public.  I suspect that they plan to use any non-response as the basis of a complaint to the Department of Education.