JUST ADDED TO THE ATLANTA SUMMIT LINEUP!
MaryGrace Bell is an attorney in the Atlanta office of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP. A former elementary school teacher in Atlanta, she focuses her practice on educational law and has experience defending school districts in litigation matters involving student injuries, special education, teacher training, and more. She previously served as a prosecutor in the Henry County Office of the Solicitor-General. She earned her J.D. from the Emory University School of Law.
Top Five Legal Issues Affecting Schools, Administrators and Teachers in 2018
- Knowledge is power, particularly when it comes to avoiding litigation. As a former teacher and current attorney for school districts, Ms. Bell knows that school employees’ jobs are hard enough without the fear of avoiding lawsuits. In this session, she will discuss five legal issues that administrators and teachers should be aware of in 2018
- Bullying
- School Safety
- Discrimination of Students with Disabilities
- Student Discipline
- Transgender Students
Ms. Bell will explain what the law says about each of these issues and will identify steps school employees can take to avoid litigation.
Learning Objectives
- Learn how the law defines bullying and how schools are required to respond to bullying
- Explore school safety best practices
- Understand the basic mechanisms of Section 504
- Identify schools’ obligations to retroactively respond to discrimination of disabled students and proactively work to prevent it
- Understand what the law says about student discipline
- Identify the situations in which schools are required to provide due process to students and understand why due process is important.
- Understand the gingerbread schematic as it relates to transgender students
- Review recent court decisions addressing the rights of transgender students and understand the trajectory of these decisions