A litany of legal issues looms for colleges considering reopening in the fall, from safety to online accessibility to federal stimulus funding. Here’s what higher education lawyers say should be on college leaders’ radars.
Whether institutions can be held liable for students, faculty and staff members contracting COVID-19 on campus is top of mind for leaders mulling reopening plans, but that’s not the only legal pitfall they have to worry about. Lawyers in higher education say an abundance of legal issues await them come September.
In the final months of the spring semester, lawsuits cropped up in response to room and board reimbursements, or lack thereof, and online AP testing complications. Colleges have for weeks lobbied Congress for liability protection should students or employees get sick.
Every institution wants to make health and safety a priority, said Jim Keller, a litigation lawyer who co-chairs Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr’s higher education and K-12 practice in Philadelphia. State and national guidelines on how to limit the spread of COVID-19 do not always align, making it difficult to determine best practices for reopening.
Additionally, there are questions regarding how much power colleges will have to mandate testing, temperature checks, mask wearing, social distancing and other precautions, Keller said.