Reviews a recent decision in "Littlefield" by the 5th Circuit upholding a school uniform policy. Advises board member who wish to adopt a school uniform policy to solicit input from parents and students, research the experiences of other school districts with uniform policies, and articulate the interests they wish to promote through uniform…

This book is intended to help students, teachers, administrators, and parents become more aware of students' legal rights and more sensitive to arguments on both sides of current civil rights controversies. The authors attempt, whenever possible, to translate legal jargon into language more readily understood by laymen, and they rely primarily on…

School officials see a need for regulations that prohibit disruptive and inappropriate forms of expression and attire; students see these regulations as unwanted restrictions on their freedom. This paper reviews court litigation involving constitutional limitations on school authority, dress and hair codes, state law constraints, and school…

This book examines the impact of a variety of court cases involving the legal rights and responsibilities of public secondary school students. Each chapter begins with a brief commentary that provides an overview of a broad area of student rights, followed by a number of short sections that focus on significant subtopics. The final section of each…

In this booklet, the Council of Supervisors and Administrators of the City of New York seeks to offer hope that teachers' and principals' capacity for the reasonable exercise of authority has not been exhausted. There is a body of legal opinion that supports the authority of the principal in disciplinary matters. It is a misconception that a…

This report discusses factors that lead to wide disagreement among educators about proper definitions of student rights and responsibilities. These factors include (1) the particular era in which a definition is formulated, (2) the role perspectives, (3) the values held, (4) the anticipated consequences, and (5) the implicit concepts held…

This report reviews legel problems related to students' rights by discussing the results of legal disputes involving primary and secondary student challenges to school district rules, regulations, and policies. The study is concerned solely with controversies involving Federal issues that have been heard by Federal courts. A summary of apparent…

This part of the School Management Handbook provides the elementary school administrator with a quick overview of several aspects of school discipline. The first section introduces concepts central to developing effective school discipline policy, including the value of focusing on preventing rather than simply punishing misbehavior;…

Court cases involving student discipline, especially in regard to student publications and dress and appearance, is the subject of this chapter. The introduction discusses the doctrine of in locus parentis, the celebrated Supreme Court case of Tinker, and the minimum essentials for enforcing rules of student conduct. The first half of the chapter…

Dress codes directed at gang attire present school officials with the dilemma of ensuring the safety of the students in a school environment versus the First Amendment rights of students to express themselves. A review of some of the court decisions limited to freedom of expression and general dress code cases serves as a foundation from which to…

Providing explanatory information regarding the legal principles and issues affecting Catholic school educators, this handbook summarizes student rights, contractual arrangements, and state and federal requirements as they apply to parochial schools. The legal issues involved in torts of negligence, including establishment and violation of…

This is a collection of paper copies of overhead transparencies that were used for a presentation on student rights and school law. The presentation covered the following topics: (1) student First Amendment rights, focusing on freedom of speech expressed through speeches, articles in student newspapers, demonstrations, T-shirts, and the…

Focuses on judicial reception of schools' attempts to curb violence, particularly predatory violence and psychopathological violence. School responses have been to create violence-prevention policies based on punitive measures or punish offending behavior after it has occurred. Such reactions may result in finding that schools have abridged…

As a result of the National Commission on Excellence in Education report and other recent studies, an increasing number of governors and state legislators have sought to establish new requirements and minimum standards statewide. Addressing the potential threat that these requirements represent to local school boards in their efforts to maintain…

Judges have interpreted the First Amendment as forbidding the establishment of religion by the state and guaranteeing free exercise of individual religious liberty. The two clauses require public school officials to adopt a position of neutrality with regard to religion in the school setting. Educators must walk a fine line, accommodating…