Lexis Nexis Academic: How to find regs and statutes. It's pretty easy...

Just choose the right area under US LEGAL on the menu, then make sure you look up the law number following the examples provided.

What to look for

• Make sure you are looking in the right place (Federal v. state)


• Make sure you select the right check box for whether you are looking for a law or a regulation


• Choose "citation" from the pull-down menu next to where you type in the law or reg


• Follow the examples below for the proper format!!!

Begin your search in Lexis Nexis Academic. Select “US Legal” from the menu at left of your screen
To Find….
NYS Consolidated Laws
Select State Statutes, Codes & Regulations from the left menu. Choose “statutory Code” from the bottom check boxes. Then
….type in “NY CLS EDUC” in Citation. A section [“sec. XX”] is optional

NYCRR
Again choose State Statutes, Codes & Regulations. This time, check the box marked “administrative” at the bottom. Then type in “8 NYCRR” in Citation. A section [“sec. XX”] is optional.

CFR
Choose “US Legal…Federal Statutes, Codes & Regulations…” and type in “34 CFR” in Citation. For a fuller citation, just use the numbers: 34 CFR 300.320 for example. DO NOT USE "sec" for CFR!
Public Laws by their PL Number
Again select Federal Statutes, Codes & Regulations. Type in “xx P.L. xx” for that public law e.g. 107-110 should be typed “107 P.L. 110” in Citation
US code
Again select Federal Statutes, Codes & Regulations. Type “20 uscs” in Citation. [sec. is optional] E.g., “20 uscs sec. 81”

Race to the Top Case Study

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, or Public Law 111-5
The House Bill (HR 1 or 2009)
34 CFR Subtitle B, Chapter II -- How the application points system works
Recovery act website at ed.gov

Education Law 3641 is about grants in aid.
Education law 3012 -c is about teacher annual reviews
S. 7991, A. 11171 was signed into law 05/28/10 and became chapter 103 of 2010 NY Laws
Search the NYS Register for "teacher Evaluations" or "performance reviews". What do you find?
The Bill Jacket for Chapter 103 of 2010

8 NYCRR 30 - 2 is the section of regulations for Annual professional performance reviews.
Search the NYS Board of Regents website for "annual performance reviews." Can you trace the conversation prior to amendmants to 8 NYCRR 100.2 and the implementation of 30 - 2?

NYS United Teachers et al v. NYS Board of Regents, 33 Misc. 3d 989; 929 N.Y.S.2d 699; 2011 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 4187; 2011 NY Slip Op 21299, decided August 24, 2011
Assembly Bill A07642 is a bill to repeal and alter some of the earlier legislation
Open [NYS] Senate: Find Bills Hearing Transcripts and more

NYC Department of Education Leaders

To update the "Cathie Black Matter" case study that we discussed earlier, here is the current list of leaders at NYC Department of Education, courtesy of the NY Times.

John B. King Jr. is the new NYS Commissioner of Education

Here is an article on his appointment from the Legislative Gazette

A recent NY Times Op ed piece talked about the outcomes of the GOOD NEWS CLUB et al. v. MILFORD CENTRAL SCHOOL US Supreme Court decision 533 U.S. 98

Chapters, etc. I have good news....

A question came up recently whether NYS unchapterd laws -- that is, laws in their original form, not consolidated -- were available online. The answer is yes, at the same website where you can look up bills and other legislative materials.

http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menuf.cgi

From that site, click CHAPTERS and use the search tool. Just limit to "chapter number" and fill it in, along with the year. AND don't forget to click the box marked "text" to see the complete text of the act.



Don't know one or the other? There's a keyword search tool. Or Google the name of the act to discover its chapter number and year, then return and try again.

"Past Practice"

While "past practice" has a definition under the law, it is not a term found in most law dictionaries. It actually comes from Labor: the US Office of Personnel Management
(http://www.opm.gov/lmr/glossary/glossaryp.asp) defines it as

"Existing practices sanctioned by use and acceptance, that are not specifically included in the collective bargaining agreement. Arbitrators use evidence of past practices to interpret ambiguous contract language. In addition, past practices can be enforced under the negotiated grievance procedure because they are considered part of the agreement. ..." Follow the OPM link above to see other definitions and context from the Federal Labor Relations Authority (http://www.flra.gov), where you can search for more information, including decisions involving unions and corporations that may be relevant to your idea.

So Why wouldn't LexisNexis help you much?? As I said, "Past Practice" is a term used most often in labor, especially in contracts and negotiations. Many labor negotiations, arbitrations and other disputes are resolved by independent or governmental boards, rather than the courts. So while you may find a few case decisions on Past Practice, you'd find much more looking at unions', negotiators', and arbitrators' websites. Here are a few to try, all of which allow you to search for decisions relating to labor negotiations (they are not court cases!)

* The National Labor Relations Board [http://www.nlrb.gov/]
* The NYS Public Employees Review Board [http://www.perb.state.ny.us/]
* United Federation of Teachers [http://www.uft.org] Note: Some "members only" portions of this site
* National Education Association [http://www.nea.org]
* AFSCME [http://www.afscme.org]

The NYS Commissioner of Education's Decisions, which contain some uses of the term in context, may be valuable, though the Commissioner is not empowered to hear certain labor matters. Still, it's worth a visit, and you can search for the term there. If you're in the Ed Law class at New Paltz this semester, you'll search the Decisions often. They're found at
http://www.counsel.nysed.gov