Last year, California enacted a law requiring schools (public and private) that issue pupil identification cards to students in any of grades 7-12, inclusive, to print the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline telephone number on either side of the cards.  The measure, SB 972, authored by State Senator Anthony Portantino, won passage in both…

A strange thing happened – or, I should say, didn’t happen – to AB 218 on its way through the California State Assembly.  Bills deemed to impose non-negligible costs upon the state are generally heard before an Appropriations Committee in each house.  AB 218, a measure that would open a three-year window for…

Private schools are nothing, if not diverse.  Some are grounded in religious orientations, while others are secular.  Some are organized as nonprofit entities, while others are profit-seeking proprietorships or corporations.  Some follow distinctive educational philosophies (think Montessori, or Waldorf), while others subscribe to an eclectic set of principles and practices.  Some are large, others…

During the course of the week leading to the California Legislature’s February 16 deadline for the introduction of proposed legislation for the current year, some 3,200 bills saw the light of day at the State Capitol.  We are still in the process of sifting through the…

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decided a case that holds significant implications for the application of the “ministerial exception.”  A copy of the three-member panel’s unanimous decision in Fratello v. Archdiocese of New York can be found, here.

To refresh your memory, the ministerial exception is a legal…