Saying the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools has generated controversy for more than sixty years. On Flag Day, June 14, 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court sidestepped an opportunity to clarify the constitutionality of public school students reciting "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. But this issue is not going away. Following the Supreme…

Supreme Court decisions are reviewed to determine the status of a constitutional right to education. (GW)

Reviews major court decisions on cases involving instructors' rights to teach controversial issues, to choose their teaching style, and to affect the curriculum in such ways as deciding to assign creationist or evolutionary biology textbooks. (Editor/RK)

The United States Supreme Court has refused to articulate a hierarchy among the guarantees of speech, press, assembly, and petition. The Court also has avoided specifying whether expression rights or safeguards against religious establishment are dominant. Addresses litigation indicating that free speech protections prevail when they collide with…

During 1978, cases pertaining to pupil injuries (mainly involving athletics) and employee injuries under workmen's compensation laws continued to dominate tort litigation in the educational sphere. Several noteworthy cases, however, were rendered in the emerging areas of educational malpractice and constitutional torts. The cases discussed are…

Litigation is discussed in which courts have established principles of law governing student academic assessments relating to course grades, admission to degree programs, and expulsion from programs for academic deficiencies and whether these academic decisions impair student's constitutional and/or contractual rights. (MSE)

The author considers the legality of minimum competency testing diploma requirements applied to the handicapped in light of (1) their constitutional and statutory rights to nondiscriminatory treatment, (2) their statutory right to an appropriate education, and (3) their constitutional right to substantive and procedural due process. (Author/SSH)

While the law governing the definition of educational adequacy is still evolving, partial definitions can be gleaned from various state and federal laws and regulations prescribing standards for schools and from judicial interpretations of constitutional and statutory provisions. This document presents the results of such an analysis. After…

Reviews court cases in which parents challenged school practices on religious grounds. Puts particular emphasis on recent attempts to make the curriculum conform to religious views. (Author/JM)

To assist school personnel in understanding current application of the law, provide an awareness of rights and responsibilities, motivate educators to translate basic concepts into actual practice, and generate an interest in further study of the law, this text is presented. Legal issues involving the rights of students and teachers in daily…