This book was designed to serve as a legal resource for secondary and elementary school teachers and prospective teachers. Specifically, the book helps teachers become aware of their legal rights and responsibilities in order to avoid violating others' constitutional and statutorial rights in the classroom, and to assert their personal and…

The Capital Area School Development Association, New York, sponsored a school law conference to fulfill a need in the region for school board members and administrators who desire to maintain and improve their knowledge in the area of school law. This document contains the text or outline of the following four presentations: (1) "Preserving…

Asserts that, until the middle of this century, there were relatively few laws affecting educator or student rights and responsibilities. Provides an overview of the origins and expansion of federal legislation related to school law since the 1950s. (CFR)

This paper argues that courts have tended to identify and enforce individual rights at the expense, in many instances, of the ability of school boards and legislatures to carry out what they perceive to be the will of the majority of voters in their jurisdictions. The trend emphasizing individual rights began in 1954 with the Supreme Court…

This collection contains 54 papers from the 48th annual conference of the Education Law Association held in November 2002. It has as its focus education law, yet it covers a wide variety of topics and issues affecting the entire range of education from preschool to college. Among the topics are the following: school vouchers; school safety and…

Educators in four Canadian provinces were surveyed to determine their knowledge of rights in educational matters. There was considerable self-confessed ignorance among the 1,137 respondents, with only 5 of the 14 questions answered correctly by a majority. Differences in responses of rural and urban educators and teachers from denominational and…

This publication consists of papers delivered at a 1986 preconference workshop of the Canadian Education Association. "Recent Legislation and Emerging Trends," by Duncan Green, identifies common themes in three recent pieces of school legislation in Ontario. The second paper, by Judith Anderson, assesses "Trends and Implications for…

A number of legal issues are involved in conducting a drug testing program to determine whether students--and occasionally teachers--are using illegal drugs. Two legal issues have been raised concerning the accuracy of the urinalysis test: whether it is chemically accurate and whether appropriate procedures have been followed to make certain that…

This chapter reviews litigation in higher education for 1986. The first section discusses the relationship between postsecondary institutions and various governmental agencies, in which litigation covers questions on the authority of boards, access to information through sunshine laws, questions of tax exempt status, and issues of accreditation.…

The laws affecting education in the United States today can generally be classified according to four categories: (1) Constitutional law (both state and federal); (2) statutes and regulations; (3) common law principles; and (4) contract law. Students and teachers in private schools are not protected by federal Constitutional law because they are…

This manual focuses on legal issues confronting schools in the area of substance abuse and provides practical policy guidance to public school managers in enforcing a substance abuse policy. After a brief introduction, section 2 examines barriers to action, commenting on several myths affecting drug abuse policy. Section 3 deals with substance…

Classroom speech of public-school teachers is a messy subject with regard to the tension between various societal demands and basic rights of students, teachers, and others at school sites. The demands are not always consistent, and rights are subject to different interpretations depending on which court decision forms the underlying basis for a…

In recent years the United States Supreme Court has ruled that the due process clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments protects the liberty and property interests of public school students and public employees. This guide examines the applicability to school boards and administrators of court decisions regarding due process proceedings.…

The concept of academic freedom originated in situations related to higher education. Although academic freedom may apply to professors, it is far from clear how, and even why, academic freedom applies to classroom K-12 teachers. This paper treats the balancing of teacher and school district rights in suits brought by teachers who claimed that…

Higher education case law in 1990 is discussed in this chapter under nine major topics: (1) intergovernmental relations; (2) discrimination in employment; (3) faculty employment; (4) administrators and staff; (5) students; (6) liability; (7) antitrust; (8) patents; and (9) estates and wills. Questions of the authority of federal, state, and local…