This summer, while half the country is sitting in an IMAX theater watching Matt Damon lash himself to a mast and outwit a cyclops in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, you're back at your desk figuring out how to train and prepare (and maybe even entertain) your staff for the year ahead. The temptation is to do what schools have always done: squeeze an entire year's worth of professional development into two or three days in August.
The problem is that educators have developed a pretty cynical view of both in-person and on-demand training. Too often, "online professional development" means the same generic compliance videos from an insurance carrier, assigned every August, followed by a quiz that half the staff can find on Quizlet before the video even finishes playing. In-person training means administrators squeeze in one more PowerPoint on one more compliance topic and hope everyone stays awake.
Neither of these is really high quality professional learning. It's checking a box.
Instead of treating August as the one opportunity to train your staff, imagine using those precious in-service days for the things that only happen well in person—building culture, discussing difficult issues, collaborating with colleagues, and asking questions. Then, throughout the school year, deliver short, engaging training modules exactly when people need them. Suddenly your August schedule isn't carrying the weight of an entire year's worth of compliance and legal training.
A well-designed in-service isn't about how much information you can cram into a few days. It's about launching a year-long learning strategy. And that strategy may be one of the least expensive, most effective investments you can make in keeping your district out of a courtroom.
The Cautionary Tale: What Happens When You Leave the Room
In Jimenez v. Roseville City School District, a teacher let a group of middle schoolers use his classroom before school to practice break dancing for a talent show. Reasonable enough. Who doesn’t break dance? The trouble started with what he didn't do. He never told his principal or vice principal he'd opened the room. He had no real training in the activity he was supervising. He regularly stepped out to make copies, use the restroom, or take a call, leaving the students on their own because, in his words, it "didn't seem necessary" to do otherwise. While he was out of the room, a 14-year-old was seriously injured. Here, the Court of Appeals ruled that a jury could find the district increased the risk of injury by failing to communicate and train its teachers on staff supervision, protocol, and classroom use. The Court reasoned the teacher's assumption that he didn't need to notify administration or supervise the students at all times, "arguably reflect[ed] a failure of proper training of teachers by the school authorities."
Why This Voyage Matters
The lesson of Jimenez is simple: districts that train their staff stand on far firmer legal ground than those that don't. Even if schools aren’t responsible for guaranteeing perfection--some bad things may still happen--the fact of training helps demonstrate something was a true accident rather than a failure on the school’s part. The good news is that this is the easy part to fix, and we can help. KSB offers on-demand, prerecorded training modules on dozens of topics (including a 35 minute 26-27 back-to-school inservice available starting this Friday), ready whenever your schedule is. Prefer something live? A KSB attorney will happily journey (a la the Odyssey) to your building for an in-person in-service or join by Zoom. You can see the full suite of training options here. Pick the training your staff needs most and get it on the calendar, or email us at ksb@ksbschoollaw.com to check pricing and book a KSB attorney.