LANSING – School boards and administrators in K-12 districts across Michigan are weighing whether to waive certain legal protections in exchange for their share of $321 million set aside in the state budget passed this fall for mental health and safety initiatives in schools.

Under part of the 2025-26 state budget passed in early October, school districts must relinquish rights like attorney-client privilege in the event of a “mass casualty” that’d later be subject to an investigation — a trade that some school leaders say could cost them more than the state safety funding they’d stand to receive.

But simultaneous lawsuits from dozens of school officials in over 30 districts statewide may press pause on that “impossible choice,” arguing legislators unconstitutionally leveraged crit

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