Medical Marijuana Administration And School Discipline

 By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995

In 2020, students were granted the right to have medical marijuana administered to them in school by their parent or guardian IF formally authorized by their school district.  The circumstances surrounding this potential opportunity can be confusing and if the law is not followed properly, could lead to discipline.

Per Education Code §49414.1 (aka JoJo's Law), it is up to each school board

if they will implement a policy to allow a parent to administer medical marijuana/cannabis at their schools.  If there is no policy in place allowing this, there is no right to administer medical marijuana at school.

If there is a board policy, per §49414.1: 

(c) The policy shall include, at a minimum, all of the following elements:

(1) The parent or guardian shall not administer the medicinal cannabis in a manner that disrupts the educational environment or exposes other pupils.

(2) After the parent or guardian administers the medicinal cannabis, the parent or guardian shall remove any remaining medicinal cannabis from the schoolsite.

(3) The parent or guardian shall sign in at the schoolsite before administering the medicinal cannabis.

(4) Before administering the medicinal cannabis, the parent or guardian shall provide to an employee of the school a valid written medical recommendation for medicinal cannabis for the pupil to be kept on file at the school.

If your child receives medical marijuana and you would like to administer it to them during their school day, check your district's board of education page to see if there may be a board policy in place.  If there is, it is critical that it is read and understood as far as what exactly IS allowed.  

If a parent does not follow the rules of their district exactly, the student could be disciplined.  For example, if a parent just can't get to school that day, and rather than forego giving the medication, they hand the medical marijuana to the student to stick in their backpack.  This is not allowed and discipline could result.

There remain laws on school discipline allowing suspension or expulsion for possession or being under the influence of marijuana, and this legal conflict has not been addressed.  As such, parents may want to formally confirm that if their child is "under the influence" due to allowed medical marijuana, they will not be punished as this "influence" is medically authorized and allowed by board policy. 

Parents may also want to explore a 504 Plan or Individualized Education Program (IEP) to see if the medication use or administration options (and other supports) may be addressed in one of these plans. 

There is still a lot of confusion surrounding medical marijuana at school, and students get punished for matters relating to cannabis very frequently.  Be sure your child won't.

Best,

 

Michelle Ball

Education Law Attorney 

 

LAW OFFICE OF MICHELLE BALL 

717 K Street, Suite 228 

Sacramento, CA 95814 

Phone: 916-444-9064 

Email:help@edlaw4students.com 

Fax: 916-444-1209

Website, Blog, Twitter, Youtube, Facebook

 

Please see my disclaimer on the bottom of my blog page. This is legal information, not legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is formed by this posting, etc. etc.!  This blog may not be reproduced without permission from the author and proper attribution of authorship. This blog may not reflect the current state of the law.

READ MORE - Medical Marijuana Administration And School Discipline

Do You Want Your Kids To Go Back To In-Person Education This Fall? Call, Write, Email, Contact Your District And School To Express Your Opinion

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995

Have you been on edge not knowing if your kids will actually get an in-person education this fall due to the Coronavirus fears?  The not knowing is difficult.  Parents need to get back to work, but how can they work if their kids are at home?  And, are kids REALLY being educated if they are getting a couple hours of classes a week online?  What are they doing the rest of the day?  What can we do and what must we do if we want schools to reopen?  It's time to communicate. 

Although there are some charter home schools already set up for great distance learning which anyone can sign up for, most parents want their kids in a physical school, even now.  Yet the education of our kids has largely been thrown to the side of the road and crushed by Coronavirus.  Now kids are not getting enough education or interaction, and are isolated and alone.

The California Constitution makes education an essential right, as outlined in Article IX which states:

Section 1

A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, the Legislature shall encourage by all suitable means the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral, and agricultural improvement.

Section 5

The Legislature shall provide for a system of common schools by which a free school shall be kept up and supported in each district at least six months in every year, after the first year in which a school has been established.

For months we have been waiting to see what would be decided by the authorities, and if school would reopen.  Would our right to an education, as outlined in the California Constitution, be returned?  It depends on where you live and who is in charge.

I have heard from parents who have received the glorious notification that their kids have a school to go back to (if they want to send them), such as in Placer County, or in Lodi, California.  I have also spoken to parents who were told no physical school was to begin, like in Los Angeles and San Diego.  These parents scratch their heads and say that this is impossible as they have young kids who cannot be left home, and that they are not equipped to teach them.  

One family I know has a First Responder parent who has to work and who cannot watch the children, let alone educate them.  This same family informed me that their District said that they had not been contacted by parents on the issue of reopening and as a result had concluded parents were indifferent to whether schools reopened for in-person education or not.  Hardly!  Parents care!  Surveys have found that the majority of parents want their kids to return to full time face-to-face school, or at least want the choice whether they do or they don't.

Ultimately, parents ALWAYS had the choice of whether to send their kids to in-person school or not, ever prior to Coronavirus.  Parents can enroll their kids in independent study, put them in a free charter school, create a private home school, or have students attend classes in the community part time with a home/class hybrid.  We did not need Coronavirus to have these options.  Parents do not need to be forced to keep their kids home- they can decide themselves, so long as the options are available to them.  Even if schools simply reopened, all parents could still keep their kids home to pursue alternative education options if they so desired, regardless.

If parents want kids to return or at least to have the option to return, it may be time to politely and reasonably contact the local school districts, the principals, our teachers, our congresspeople, the Governor, the State Superintendent of Education, the local newspaper and anyone else who may have a say in this, and let them know.  Perhaps with enough voices, we can get the hesitant school districts to just get the job done already, after months of knowing this day was coming- to get distancing in place, to get the masks and hand sanitizer dispersed, staggered breaks set up, and get our kids back to life and learning.  It is likely a large chunk of parents won't return their kids regardless, which means less crowding anyway for the rest of the kids.

Parents have more power than they think, but only if they exercise their right to be heard and express themselves.  If schools and government officials are only hearing from teachers unions and government officials on this, kids may be at home until they are 18 and even into college with the way things are going.  Kids will always get sick, whether it's from Coronavirus, the flu, or some other bug out there, but the harm from isolation and internet all day also poses a threat to our kids and their future.  How are other countries doing this, but the USA cannot?  We can do it also.

It's time for some grass roots parent-driven advocacy.  There are millions of parents in this state and I would say that is enough to make an impression on school officials if the respectful noise is loud enough.

Best,

Michelle Ball

Education Law Attorney 

LAW OFFICE OF MICHELLE BALL 

717 K Street, Suite 228 

Sacramento, CA 95814 

Phone: 916-444-9064 

Email:help@edlaw4students.com 

Fax: 916-444-1209

Website, Blog, Twitter, Youtube, Facebook

Please see my disclaimer on the bottom of my blog page. This is legal information, not legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is formed by this posting, etc. etc.!  This blog may not be reproduced without permission from the author and proper attribution of authorship. This blog may not reflect the current state of the law.

READ MORE - Do You Want Your Kids To Go Back To In-Person Education This Fall? Call, Write, Email, Contact Your District And School To Express Your Opinion

California Charter School Case: Bullis Charter School vs. Los Altos School District

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995

Last week, the California Court of Appeals for the Sixth District handed down Bullis Charter School vs. Los Altos School District (October 27, 2011).  This case vindicated the rights of charter schools to facilities reasonably equivalent to other schools in the district.  This is an important decision for California parents and students as it will ensure charter students are not jipped and/or do not get stuck in small, run down facilities, with inadequate space for sports, child care, and students.

In Bullis, which interpreted the Charter Schools Act (California Education Code 47600) and Proposition 39 (Education Code 47614), the Court of Appeals granted Bullis' request for a court order to be issued to the Los Altos School District. Essentially, the court ordered the District to provide a "complete and fair facilities offer to Bullis from which it could be determined that 'reasonably equivalent' facilities were provided" (page 46 of attached decision- for you lawyer's out there, this is not the official citation).

The District had provided an offer of facilities to Bullis which was lacking in the following ways (among others):

1)  It selected the wrong schools to compare,
2)  Did not compare total site size,
3)  Did not consider three categories of space: teaching, non-teaching and specialized space in its calculations,
4)  Contained flawed and/or missing information on size/square footage.

In laymen's terms, the District's proposal basically compared apples to peanuts, and used flawed figures and percentages to make it appear that Bullis was getting an equivalent space, when they were not.  In fact, in the proposal, Bullis was required to share outdoor space, had no classroom for its seventh graders, and did not have child care space allotted, among other things.

This decision is a student victory and will be a boon to charter school students who have sometimes been stuck in facilities which were smaller or in worse condition than local public schools.  This is good for all students in California whose school choice will be even better than before.

Best,

Michelle Ball
Education Law Attorney
LAW OFFICE OF MICHELLE BALL
717 K Street, Suite 228
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-444-9064
Fax: 916-444-1209
Website: http://www.edlaw4students.com/

Blog: http://edlaw4students.blogspot.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/michelleaball

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/EdLaw4Students

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Law-Office-of-Michelle-Ball/191273330901857

Please see my disclaimer on the bottom of my blog page. This is legal information, not legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is formed by this posting, etc. etc.!  This blog may not be reproduced without permission from the author and proper attribution of authorship.

READ MORE - California Charter School Case: Bullis Charter School vs. Los Altos School District