An interim final rule, effective upon publication, requires universal masking of all individuals two years of age and older, with some noted exceptions (mask requirement effective November 30, 2021), and all Head Start staff, contractors whose activities involve contact with or providing direct services to children and families, and volunteers working in classrooms or directly with children to be vaccinated for COVID-19 by January 31, 2022.

You can see the interim final rule here:  https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/11/30/2021-25869/vaccine-and-mask-requirements-to-mitigate-the-spread-of-covid-19-in-head-start-programs

January 29, 2016

Re:  Compliance with Texas Senate Bill 1812 - Annual Report of Eminent Domain Authority

Dear Superintendents of Independent School Districts in Texas, and Presidents of all Community Colleges:

Pursuant to Senate Bill 1812, enacted by the 84th Legislature and in effect as of September 1, 2015, all public and private entities in Texas authorized to exercise the power of eminent domain are required to electronically report specific information to the Comptroller for posting.  You may log in here to submit your report:  http://comptroller.texas.gov/webfile/eminent-domain/.   The electronic reporting form features standardized choices. You may download a list of provisions that are available in the online form in order to gather all the information before starting the submission process.  The list of provisions can be found here:      (http://comptroller.texas.gov/webfile/ eminent-domain/provisions.pdf) These reporting requirements must be met by February 1, 2016 in order to avoid a maximum penalty of $2,000.

If you have questions or if I can assist you further in these reporting requirements, please let me know.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Lufkin lawyer Wayne D.  Haglund will be one of two speakers presenting a national webinar to be held Wednesday, February 12, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. CST.  The webinar is entitled “Sexual Harassment in Education:  A Legal and Practical Update.”  The webinar is presented by the Education Law Association, a national non-profit association.  For information on registration for the webinar, see https://educationlaw.org/webinars-bookstore/product/216-sexual-harassment-in-education-a-legal-practical-update-webinar

The purpose of this posting is to point out to you some legal issues which have surfaced concerning implementation of the Affordable Care Act by school districts which impact the salaries of the five (5) top paid employees of the school district.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, public law #111-148, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, hereinafter referred to as “The Affordable Care Act,” contains provisions that indicate a need to reevaluate the health insurance benefits paid for the five (5) top paid employees of the school district.  The federal health care reform law specifically addresses benefits provided to the highest paid employees of a school district. 

Self-funded health care plans are already subject to federal non-discrimination rules.  The Affordable Care Act extends these non-discrimination rules to apply to employers with fully-insured plans.  At present, it is unclear whether school districts that participate in
TRS-ActiveCare are considered self-insured or fully-insured plans.  This is because while
TRS-ActiveCare is a self-insured program, the districts themselves are not self-insured.  By extending non-discrimination rules to fully-insured plans, it appears that the Affordable Care Act now answers the question and applies all of the non-discrimination rules to all school district plans.  TRS-ActiveCare is not grandfathered and therefore is not exempt from the non-discrimination rules.

Before the Affordable Care Act, it has been a common practice for Texas school districts to pay medical insurance premiums for Superintendents and to treat such premium payments as non-taxable income.  While school districts have been trained in avoiding discrimination based on race, gender, age, disability, and other protected classifications, there has previously not been a non-discrimination provision in any federal health care law.  The Affordable Care Act now contains a provision that prohibits discrimination in favor of highly-paid employees. The Affordable Care Act extends rules that previously applied to self-funded health plans to employers with fully-insured health plans. 

Specifically, the Affordable Care Act prohibits discrimination by fully-insured plans in favor of highly-compensated employees.  While the term “highly-compensated employees” has not yet been defined, it is expected that it will define when the federal regulations implementing the Affordable Care Act are adopted.  However, all of the commentators that I have reviewed believe that the federal regulations will define a highly-compensated employee as:  one (1) of the five (5) highest paid officers of the employee; or an employee in the top 25% highest paid employees. 

In a situation where the school district pays some part of the health insurance premiums for its employees, but pays all of the premiums for the Superintendent, the school district must treat the excess premium payments made for the Superintendent as taxable income to the Superintendent in order to avoid violation of the non-discrimination rule. 

It appears that school districts who have agreed to pay the superintendent’s excess premiums will have two options:  1) to convert the superintendent’s excess premium payments into additional salary; or 2) to start treating the excess payment as taxable income to the Superintendent subject to withholding.

The penalty for violation of the non-discrimination rules is harsh.  Although not in final regulations as yet, the IRS has suggested that if a fully-insured plan violates the non-discrimination rule, a penalty should be imposed on the employer of $100.00 per employee discriminated against (think everyone other than the Superintendent) per day.  This means that, for a district with approximately 1,000 or more full time employees, other than the Superintendent, the proposed penalty would be $100,000.00 per day for each day that the discrimination continued.

The penalties will not be in effect until the regulations implementing the Affordable Care Act are adopted.  The district needs to be prepared for this.  I recommend that we immediately begin a discussion to modify the terms of the employment contracts of the five (5) top paid employees of the district to address which alternative the district prefers for avoiding the penalties associated with the non-discrimination rules. 

While not an immediate issue, it is speculated that the district will have to be in compliance by September 1, 2014 to avoid the penalty provisions of the new law.  My advice is that this issue should be addressed and resolved as soon as possible and preferably in early July of 2013.

Please contact the Haglund Law Firm, P.C. as soon as possible should you require any assistance.  

 

Effective August 2, 2012, the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Worker’s Compensation (TDI-DWC) adopted new rules requiring that self-insured political subdivisions notify the TWI-DWC when they elect to provide medical benefits to employees by directly contracting with health care providers or by contracting with health care providers through a health benefits pool. 

If self-insured political subdivisions provide medical benefits to their employees by directly contracting with health care providers or by contracting through a health benefits pool as of August 2, 2012, the self-insured political subdivision must file a DWC Form 020SI, Self-Insured Governmental Entity Coverage Information, with the TDI-DWC not later than December 31, 2012. 

If the self-insured political subdivision makes a decision to provide the medical benefits to their employees (by directly contracting with health care providers or by contracting through a health benefits pool) after August 2, 2012, the self-insured political subdivision must file a DWC Form 020SI with the TDI-DWC no later than 30 days after the date the self-insured political subdivision begins providing medical benefits to the employees in that manner.

Download DWC Form 020SI

Also, please remember that self-insured political subdivisions must also comply with the proof of coverage reporting requirements outlined in 28 Texas Administrative Code §110.1.  Failure to comply with these regulations is an administrative violation. 

Please contact our office if you require assistance with any of the above.  If you wish to subscribe to our website postings, please fill out the request at the bottom of this page to the right.

Once again this year, the Haglund Law Firm, P.C. was a sponsor of the American Cancer Society’s Pineywoods Cattle Baron’s Gala held on October 13, 2012 at the Moore Farm in Lufkin, Texas. The money raised at the 3rd Annual Pineywoods Cattle Baron’s Gala will benefit the American Cancer Society through research, education, and patient services.  For the more than 1.4 million people who will be diagnosed with cancer this year, the American Cancer Society provides hope, saves lives, and creates more birthdays.  To learn more, visit the Pineywoods Cattle Baron’s Gala Website at

http://gala.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=35504&pg=entry.

Haglund Law Firm, P.C. to speak at 2012 TASA/TASB Convention, Austin, Texas

This year Wayne D. Haglund and Hilary Haglund Walker will join the list of guest speakers at the 2012 Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) and the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Convention to be held in the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas from September 28-30^th.

Their presentations include “Building a Better School Construction Contract”, presented with the other members of the TASB Construction Contracts Committee, “DAEP is no place for my child”, dealing with disciplinary assignment of students to alternative school,  and “When and How to tell when to Lawyer UP for School Administrators facing a crisis”, presented with the Board President and Superintendent of the Ennis Independent School District.

For more information about this conference you may visit their website at www.tasa.tasb.org.

 

Our firm is devoted to helping those in our community and for years, we have supported the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).  We encourage you and your organization to join us and become our partners in crime as we help raise bail  for our employee, Samantha Payne, who is going to jail for children affected by Muscular Dystrophy in an effort to raise money to send these children to camp.

 Please feel free to make a donation to this great cause at the link below.

https://secure2.convio.net/mda/site/Donation2?df_id=1698&FR_ID=3313&PROXY_ID=1467914&PROXY_TYPE=20&1698.donation=form1

Pursuant to Senate Bill 18, enacted by the 82nd Legislature and in effect as of September 1, 2011, all public and private entities in Texas authorized to exercise the power of eminent domain are required to submit a letter to the Comptroller of Public Accounts detailing their legal authority to exercise this power.  The letter must be sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, no later than December 31, 2012. 

All powers of eminent domain expire on September 1, 2013 for all entities which fail to submit the letter by December 31, 2012.  This means that the failure to timely submit a proper letter justifying the District's legal authority will result in the loss of this valuable power.

Information and a form that can be completed online, printed and mailed by certified mail, return receipt requested, can be found at http://window.state.tx.us/sb18compliance/.

If you have any questions or need any assistance in completing the form, please feel free to contact us at (936)639-0007.

 

The information, comments, and links posted on the blog do not constitute legal advice. No attorney-client relationship has been formed by the blog communication(s)

It is this firm’s policy to send all communication by more than one method (i.e., fax and email, or email and regular mail) unless we have confirmation that you have received our communication.  The reason?  Most of the communications sent by this office are time sensitive, and many of our clients are governmental entities or other large employers where we communicate with a large number of personnel.  Because we never know if the person we are communicating with is in the office that particular day, we request a read receipt to let us know that the communication has been received and opened by the recipient.  If we do not receive a read receipt in a timely manner, we assume that the person we are communicating with may be out of the office, and we send the communication by email to other personnel, if appropriate, or by fax or regular mail.  Sending read receipts keeps us informed that our communication was received and is being acted upon, and saves us time, which also saves our client money when we do not charge for our time to send the communication by fax, as well as long-distance telephone charges for the fax.

 

The information, comments, and links posted on the blog do not constitute legal advice. No attorney-client relationship has been formed by the blog communication(s)