Legal Focus

In 2022, school districts operated mostly uninterrupted from the coronavirus, and federal and state governments tackled more issues unrelated to the pandemic. For school transportation contractors, this meant keeping up with new or amended laws and regulations, and other significant events. Continue reading for a discussion on some of the biggest legal topics affecting the school transportation industry in 2022.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, school districts nationwide have utilized some variation of both virtual and in-person instruction to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. While most school districts began the 2021-2022 school year in person, the Delta and Omicron COVID- 19 variants have forced some districts to once again consider temporarily closing school in favor of virtual instruction. School closure days have left many contractors wondering how they will be paid. To ensu...

At the start of the 2021-2022 school year, 25 states had issued some form of COVID vaccination mandate, while 12 other states issued COVID vaccination mandate bans. Then on November 4th, OSHA published its Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) mandating COVID vaccinations for large employers, which was followed by a court ordered stay of enforcement issued on November 12th. As federal, state, and local government agencies continue to issue vaccination laws and policies, it is critical that contract...

COVID-19 has created an entirely new workplace safety issue within the purview of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (“OSHA”). While workplace safety has always been an important focus of the school bus industry, employers must now consider how they are handling their own internal protocols with regard to the coronavirus. If an employee raises a COVID based workplace safety concern, employers should be aware of possible OSHA implications when responding to such complaints. This ...

As a number of regions across the country begin to experience a surge in coronavirus cases due to new variants, employers and local, state, and federal governments have begun to mandate vaccines in some capacity. Recently, the Biden Administration announced that they have directed the Occupational Health and Safety Administration to create a new rule which requires private employers with at least 100 employees to ensure that their employees are vaccinated or receive weekly Covid-19 testing. Addi...

As kickoff to the 2021-2022 school year is right around the corner, there are a number of lingering concerns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Many contractors are left wondering: What are the guidelines for wearing masks? Can I require my employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine? And what can I do about the shortage of drivers? Continue reading below for a recap on these specific issues. Click Here to Read More

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, views about mask requirements have been a divisive issue highlighting the competing interests of individual freedoms and public policy, against a background of conflicting views about the spread and mortality of the coronavirus generally. This is complicated by the fact that mask requirements may come from federal, state, or local sources; and is complicated even further by the dichotomy of vaccinated and unvaccinated people sharing public space. Thi...