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Education

The mission for the GDCR Education Practice Group is to provide the highest quality personalized legal service to Georgia school districts. Our attorneys have unique and specialized qualifications based on years of extensive experience serving school boards and districts throughout Georgia.

Our practice group works closely with school board members, superintendents, administrators and employees to understand first the client’s legal problem and then to resolve complex issues. As shown below, our firm provides both a breadth and depth of legal experience in all aspects of school law.  We offer large-firm legal experience and quality while providing the responsiveness and cost effectiveness of a smaller firm.

Representative clients of the Education Group include the Clayton County School District and Marietta City School District.

Our areas of experience include:

  • Board governance
    • Legal Counsel at Board meetings
    • Board training
    • Board policy drafting and revision.
    • Compliance with accreditation standards
    • Open Meetings/Open records compliance
    • Robert’s Rules of Procedure
    • Assistance with Board election and vacancy issues
  • Student issues
    • Student discipline
    • Special education service
    • 504 accommodations
    • Title IX compliance
    • Title VI compliance
    • Student speech
    • Student searches
    • Student civil rights
    • Student safety
    • Student litigation in state court, federal court and administrative hearings
    • FERPA compliance
    • Homeless student issues
  • Employment issues
    • Handbook drafting and revision.
    • Employee investigations
    • Federal anti-discrimination compliance
    • Employee leave and accommodation
    • Compliance with Georgia employment laws, including Georgia Whistleblower claims
    • Employee speech
    • Employee searches
    • Employee civil rights
    • Employee litigation in state court, federal and administrative courts
    • Employee benefits
    • Fair Dismissal compliance and hearings
    • Immigration issues
    • Handle all areas of worker’s compensation claims
    • Unemployment Claims
  • Charter Schools
    • Review of Charter school applications and renewals
    • Charter school financing
  • Charter System/Strategic Waivers
    • Drafting of and Review of Charter school system and Strategic Waiver contracts
    • Compliance with Charter School System and Strategic Waiver contracts
  • Business operations
    • Construction law
    • Real estate acquisition
    • Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST)
    • Tax Anticipation Notes/General Obligation Bonds
    • Tax Allocation Districts
    • Development Authority Interactions
    • Procurement/Purchasing
    • Contract negotiation and drafting
    • Facility use and naming rights
    • Bid protests
    • Disposal of school property
    • Transportation
    • Finance
    • Intergovernmental contracts
  • Safety and Security
    • Establishment of school police departments
    • Police investigations
    • Compliance with state (POST) requirements
    • Compliance with federal laws, including compliance with 4th and 5th Amendments of US Constitution
  • General litigation
    • Assist in risk management decisions
    • Extensive experience with sovereign and official immunity in defending personal injury claims against school districts
    • Insurance coverage review, including self-insurance
    • Real Estate litigation, including condemnation and quiet title actions
  • Intellectual property
  • Public-private partnerships