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There were 44 articles found in this category:

1. Statutory dates for hiring/rehiring each type of employee
   June 1st to rehire licensed educators, If no notice of termination or rehire, they are automatically rehired as of June 1. There is no statutory date for any other type of employee.
2. What is the state law regarding hiring registered violent offenders?
   Are there any state or federal laws that prohibits a school district from hiring a registered violent offender? Not as a teacher, but as a staff position with student contact (ie maintenance, bus driver, etc.). Answer: There is no state law prohibiting hiring registered violent offenders. Sch ...
3. Teacher's rights at school board meeting
   What are my legal rights if a board member physically came at me during a school board meeting? I am a teacher at the school. Answer: As a teacher, you can contact the MEA-MFT or other union representative if you have one. Also you should look at school policies to see if there is a complain ...
4. Scanning paper student records
   We are a school district with a lot of student records that we are required to keep permanently. Can we scan the paper copies and then destroy the paper copies? Per Administrative Rule 44.14.202, records that have a retention period beyond 10 years, may not be retained in digital format as the ...
5. School Records - How long should we keep?
   How long do we need to keep student records and how many years does one need to keep federal grant applications? The School District's records retention schedules are in Schedule 7 on the Secretary of State's web page: http://sos.mt.gov/Records/forms/local/Local_Schedule7.pdf
6. Revocation of Teacher's license
   What is the process for revoking a teaching certificate in Montana? Can you give me examples of cases where this has occurred? Montana law provides the process by which an educator's certificate may be revoked or suspended. The specific Montana statute addressing this issue is reproduced in its ...
7. Student searches/teacher liability
   As a band and choir director I take many trips with students. I would like to know MY legal rights when it comes to searching bags etc. of students I suspect of having drugs, alcohol or other illegal substances. The first important point with this topic is that in your role as band and choir dir ...
8. Observing child's class
   I am interested in observing in my daughter's science class periodically. Is there ever a reason a parent would be denied this opportunity?? I would not speak or assist or interrupt--simply there to observe. Thank you for your response! In Montana, we follow a model of strong local control over ...
9. closed board meeting
   Who can attend a closed board meeting involving the hiring/firing of a staff member? If the board chairman closed the meeting, then he or she must have determined that the staff member's right to privacy clearly exceeded the merits of public disclosure. In that case, the following persons can be ...
10. immunization exemptions
    What are provisions for exceptions to immunizations? Montana law states that school officials may not allow a student to attend school unless the student has been immunized against certain diseases. See Mont. Code Ann. 20-5-403, reproduced below. Montana law also provides exceptions to that gen ...
11. Deadline for signing teacher contract
    What is the dead-line for signing your teaching contract for the next school year? After signing a contract for the next year, do you have a certain amount of time to back out of the contract before you are penalized? A teacher has 20 days from the date the contract is offered in which to sign ...
12. Trustees and gifts
    When serving on the local school board the district administration gave school board members passes to all sporting events. It was accompanied with a letter of appreciation thanking school board members for their hard work. I would like to know if Montana law forbids taking gifts or gratuity and ...
13. Open admission
    What is open admission? Is it the law? How do I know which schools have open admission? Must the school district have a policy in their policy manual stating that they have open admission? School districts in Montana are required to admit children to school that are the appropriate age if a pare ...
14. Student suspension and expulsion
    Unless a student is a special education student, it appears that there is no clear rule or regulation that sets a maximum number of days allowed for a student suspension. When does an extended suspension become an expulsion? There is no law or rule that speaks to the exact number of days of susp ...
15. Breach of contract
    I heard that there is a law that states if I have signed a contract to teach for the following year, I have until July 1st to resign from that contract. Is that true? Would there be any penalties for doing so? No, its not true. There is a statute and an administrative rule that provide that a s ...
16. School drop out age
    At what age can a student drop out of school in Montana? Section 20-5-103 of the Montana statutes provides that a student has to attend school until the later of the following dates: The child's 16th birthday or the date of completion of the 8th grade. The provisions of this section don't apply ...
17. student records
    What should we do when a student leaves our school and no other school requests his records? We have waited over a month for a records request. Schools are required to maintain a permanent record file for each student. Copies of these records are forwarded to schools who request them. There is r ...
18. Special education records
    How long do you keep a student's IEP after they have graduated and left the school? Is there a release form or something that must be signed before you may destroy the records? All of the information regarding retention of special education records can be found on Local Government Retention Sch ...
19. How to change school district boundary lines
    Can you tell me how to initiate the process of changing a school district boundary line? The procedure for transferring territory from one district to another is contained in 20-6-105 MCA which is reproduced below. There are sample forms available for use by petitioners and by the county superin ...
20. annexation - teacher tenure
    Are any rights that tenured teachers have in a school that is closing to be included in a school they are annexing to? Can tenured teachers from the closing school have first chance for a job by obtaining the job from non tenured teachers in the school they are annexing to? The statute that addr ...