Legal Focus

School Boards are responsible for making decisions about bus stop locations and student walking routes, but they often delegate these duties to their contractors. Some bus stop locations and walking routes are easy to evaluate, but some may be more complicated and require assistance to make a determination about safety issues. Fortunately, Pennsylvania law, 67 Pa. Code 447.1, provides guidelines for determining if a walking route is safe, and a PennDOT Traffic Unit that is available to assist in...

On December 12, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued its Final Rule to Modernize Representation-Case Procedures, sometimes referred to as the “ambush election” Rules, which govern the procedures for union representation elections. The new rules go into effect on April 14, 2015. Read more about what this new rule means, if your company is a target for unionization and what you as an employer should do.

On October 22, 2014 Governor Corbett signed HB 435 of 2103, as amended, into law as Act153. This amendment to Pennsylvania’s Child Protective Services Law, 23 Pa.C.S. § 6301, et seq, (CPSL) expands background clearance requirements to include volunteers who will have contact with children (among other changes applicable to adoptive/ foster parents). Volunteer clearances are required by July 15, 2015 but the new law does not explicitly define the “employers, administrators, supervisors, or o...

On October 22, 2014 Governor Corbett signed Act 168 into law. Originally introduced in 2013, the primary implication of this new law is that it adds a new section to the Public School Code requiring prospective, current, and former employers to share information about applicants seeking jobs where they will have direct contact with children. While Pennsylvania law has long required detailed criminal background checks for school bus drivers, the new law requires prospective, current, and former e...

While Pennsylvania law requires school bus drivers to have a physical no later than every 12 months, most healthcare plans will only pay for an annual physical if it has been more than 12 months since the last exam. This forces a school bus driver to choose between paying out of pocket for an annual exam every other year or risk a gap in compliance with the annual physical requirement. This note will discuss the current Pennsylvania state law, proposed statutory changes, and what some contractor...

There’s a simple way to avoid many risk management claims like worker’s compensation, bus accidents and regulatory citation: Don’t put the wrong worker to work. The “wrong worker,” is anyone who is physically unable or unfit to perform essential job functions. Creating and following a Fitness for Duty program at your company can help you identify workers who should not be behind the wheel, turning a wrench or assisting special needs students in an out of the seat. In doing so, you can prot...

What does the next generation of your company look like? Who will carry on when retirement comes, ready or not! These are the important questions that need to be asked when Succession Planning. Included in this article is information regarding what Succession Planning really is, how to start and the steps you need to take to begin your Succession Planning today