You may have read our recent blog post about board retreats. Several times since our founding, the ACLU of Nebraska has sent out a statewide records request right around KSB’s summer retreat. At least we weren’t boarding a plane in 2026.
In its latest request, the ACLU seeks copies of policies and other documents related to situations where your dress code discusses “Tribal Regalia, Natural and Protective Hairstyles, and Headdresses and Religious Attire.” These are all terms from 79-2,159, Nebraska’s dress code law that was amended last summer.
Let’s start by talking about timing.
Public bodies have 4 business days to respond to a records request, excluding the day of receipt and non-business days (weekends and days where the district office is closed). If you received the request July 1 and are closed July 3, that means responses would be due July 8 if your district offices are otherwise open. So, deep breath. Your 4th of July plans don’t have to be put on hold.
Breaking Down the Requests
First of all, the ACLU is asking for the dress code policy your board adopted to comply with 79-2,159. That makes sense to most of our clients. For some districts, the only responsive document may be your policy.
The ACLU’s second and third requests have some administrators scratching their heads. When you cut through all the lawyerly wording in the request, the ACLU wants copies of any documentation you have related to times when you had to apply these specific provisions of your dress code policy either during school or at graduation. Many Nebraska schools will not have any responsive documents to this request. On the other hand, maybe you had situations where a student requested certain attire or adornments for graduation or during the school year. In that case, you will have to look back at documentation that exists, if any. Keep in mind FERPA and other confidentiality laws may apply, so if, for example, you sought KSB’s legal advice about a specific student situation, you should withhold that information and state the legal reasons in the response. The ACLU appropriately recognizes this and notes that they are not seeking information about “an individual’s records or personal information.” If your district falls into this category, it’s worth a call to your school lawyer to discuss your documentation, confidentiality obligations, and the response you will send. If you do have documents related to a specific student’s discipline history or dress code accommodation request, be sure to reach out to your school’s attorney before responding to the ACLU.
The ACLU’s last request seeks documentation of any training you provided to District staff about these portions of your policy. There is no requirement in the statute that you train all staff on this policy. However, you likely did receive some training as administrators and may have discussed the new policy requirements with staff at the beginning of last year. For example, here are slides from KSB’s presentations around the time the dress code law changed:
If you attended these or any other training and have copies of those slides or materials, you should include those in the response. We know most school admins had some type of training, even if informal during policy and handbook update time. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have “records” of those. But disclose them if you do. That could also include a simple slide you used at inservice time for your staff.
Responding to the Request
If you are a KSB Policy Service subscriber, you will at least disclose policy 5031. For the remaining requests, that’ll vary by school depending upon if you had any circumstances arise where you applied the policy to requested items, and whether you did any training or attended any conferences or other training that discussed the changes to the dress code laws.
As always, if you have any other questions, you can reach out to any of us or to all of us at ksb@ksbschoollaw.com.