2021 Attorney Network Digest
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The Attorney Network Digest is an annual update for attorneys working with Community Action Agencies (CAAs). The digest features legal, governance, and financial resources and publications developed by CAPLAW over the past year that address issues unique to CAAs. If you have any questions about the Attorney Network or any of the issues discussed in this digest, please contact CAPLAW for further information.
Note to Executive Directors: If your CAA’s attorney is not yet part of CAPLAW’s Attorney Network, we invite them to join our referral list and receive the latest legal developments impacting Community Action.
In this edition:
Model Policies
Remote Work Policy
Webinars + Trainings
Head Start: Back to School • 2020 Uniform Guidance Revisions • Remote Work Policies & Pitfalls • Remote Work Tax & Accounting Compliance • Data Privacy Expert Conversations
Tools + FAQs
Bylaws During Emergencies • CAA Board Private Sector FAQ •
Roles and Responsibilities of Public CAA Boards • Client Eligibility FAQ + Pandemic Supplement • Do’s and Don’t’s of Employee Vaccination • Tax Issues with Sharing Employees
Case Studies
Case Studies of Democratic Selection Procedures • Snapshots of Democratic
Selection in a Pandemic
Articles
Federal Vaccine Mandates • Paying HS Health Insurance Premiums • Min. Wage Increase for Federal Contractors • Rescinded Diversity Training EO • HS DRS Rule During Emergencies
Model Policies
CAPLAW develops a library of model documents for CAAs and their attorneys on the legal parameters of a CAA's operations and transactions.
This Sample Remote Work Policy provides a framework for CAAs to use as a starting point, with annotated provisions to ensure that the policy sets clear expectations for their employees. We recommend that CAAs work with their local attorney to ensure the policy complies with applicable state and local laws.
Webinars + Trainings
CAPLAW hosts webinars on an ongoing basis addressing a range of legal and financial issues facing CAAs and the legal professionals who work with them.
Head Start: Back to School
This webinar discusses the Office of Head Start’s expectations for resuming program operations, using pandemic relief funding, encouraging diversity, making facilities improvements, taking advantage of administrative flexibilities, and supporting staff. The webinar also explores other suggestions for safely reopening, including vaccine policies in the workplace.
New Rules of the Road: The 2020 Uniform Guidance Revisions
In this two-part webinar series, CAPLAW analyzes the major revisions to the Uniform Guidance, 2 C.F.R. Part 200, which took effect in November 2020, and explains how these revisions are likely to affect CAAs. Part 1 of the series discusses changes and clarifications relating to the recovery of indirect costs, including use of the de minimis rate and direct cost allocation. Part 2 addresses other notable changes, including procurement, the role of non-binding guidance, and grant termination.
Making Remote Work Work: Policies and Pitfalls
In this webinar, we review CAPLAW’s new sample remote work policy and discuss ways in which CAAs and employees may take advantage of the flexibilities inherent to certain recommended policy provisions, as well as how to set clear expectations for both the employer’s and employee’s roles and obligations.
Tax and Accounting Compliance from a (Social) Distance
This webinar discusses a variety of issues pertaining to how state and federal tax laws may apply to a CAA that has implemented a remote work arrangement.
Conversations with Experts: Privacy and Technology in a
Post-Pandemic World
As CAAs turn to electronic data storage solutions in the wake of the pandemic, this conversation series features four data privacy and technology experts each leading an informal discussion on issues related to protecting data. Topics covered include cybersecurity and data protection, privacy rights of clients, privacy rights of employees in the hybrid workplace, and reviewing and negotiating cloud services agreements.
Tools + FAQs
CAPLAW's toolkits and FAQ Archive provide guidance and answers on a range of issues covering topics that CAAs commonly face.
Weatherproofing CAA Bylaws: Preparing for Emergency Governance
This toolkit helps CAAs adapt their bylaws for future emergencies by ensuring the bylaws have sufficient flexibility to respond to the governance challenges that CAA boards face during crisis situations. CAAs can use this resource to increase their operational and governance capacity to respond effectively to a future emergency, as well as avoid being out of compliance with their bylaws.
Unlocking the Potential of the Tripartite Board Private Sector FAQ
This FAQ answers questions related to the composition, selection, and role of the private sector of the tripartite board, and presents ways in which CAAs can utilize private sector seats to boost board capacity and engagement.
The Roles and Responsibilities of Public CAA Boards
This resource answers some of the most frequently asked questions about a tripartite board’s role and responsibilities that CAPLAW has received from public CAAs, addressing public CAAs’ unique structure, relationship with local authorities, composition and selection requirements, and decision-making authority.
Client Eligibility FAQ + Pandemic Supplement
This updated Q&A and pandemic supplement are intended to assist state CSBG lead agencies and CAAs in better understanding various issues that arise when CAAs determine income eligibility for CSBG services and benefits.
Do's and Don'ts of Workplace COVID-19 Vaccination
This article provides guidance for CAAs that want to encourage employee vaccinations and offers some key do’s and don’ts as they engage in vaccine-related efforts, including vaccination mandates, incentives, education, and administration.
Tax Issues to Consider When Sharing Employees
This article discusses the key tax considerations for CAAs seeking to share employees with another CAA, community partner, or other organization, including the implications for the CAA’s tax-exempt status and issues related to withholding and paying payroll and employment taxes for shared employees.
Case Studies
CAPLAW’s case studies feature CAAs that have adopted certain exemplary practices in response to specific leadership challenges and opportunities.
Preserving the Low-Income Voice: Snapshots of Democratic Selection Procedures in a Pandemic
This collection of snapshots presents the experiences of CAAs that used innovative methods to engage their communities and successfully recruit and elect new low-income sector representatives to their board during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Raising the Low-Income Voice: Case Studies in Democratic Selection Procedures
These updated case studies provide an in-depth view of various ways CAAs are meeting the CSBG Act’s requirement to elect low-income sector board members pursuant to democratic selection procedures, and how they have adapted in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Articles
CAPLAW's News Flashes and e-Bulletins include articles that address new and current legal issues specific to CAAs.
Game Changer: Highlights of the President’s New
Pandemic Strategy
This article summarizes several key federal requirements announced by the Biden administration as a part of its six-point Path out of the Pandemic Plan, including new vaccine mandates for federal contractors, Head Start employees, and employees of private employers with 100 or more employees.
OHS Issues Guidance on Paying Health Insurance Premiums
This article provides guidance on how Head Start programs can pay for group health premiums for seasonally furloughed employees, both during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as future summer breaks.
Executive Order Increases Minimum Wage for
Federal Contractors
This article discusses President Biden’s April executive order raising the minimum wage for federal contractors from $10.90 to $15.00 per hour, emphasizing that this order is not generally applicable to CAAs and other Community Action Network organizations as federal grantees.
Executive Order on Diversity and Inclusion Training Rescinded
This article discusses the official revocation of President Trump’s September 2020 executive order, which had prohibited federal contractors from conducting certain workplace inclusion and diversity trainings dealing with subjects including white privilege and structural racism.
ACF Issues Rule on Head Start DRS During Emergencies
This article discusses the Administration for Children and Families (ACF)’s interim final rule, which gives ACF flexibility to make designation renewal determinations for Head Start programs during federally declared emergency situations when access to data required for the determinations might be limited or unobtainable.
This digest is part of the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Legal Training and Technical Assistance (T/TA) Center. It was created by Community Action Program Legal Services, Inc. (CAPLAW) in the performance of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Community Services Cooperative Agreement – Grant Award Number 90ET0482-01. Any opinion, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in these materials are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.
The contents of this publication are intended to convey general information only and do not constitute legal advice. Any communication through this publication or through CAPLAW’s website does not constitute or create an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal advice, please contact CAPLAW or another attorney directly.
