As states across the country face unprecedented budget shortfalls, communities as well as policymakers are trying to stave off the potentially devastating impacts of budget cuts on schools and other basic services. Many public school systems are facing significant shortfalls, forcing "reductions in force" or RIFs, of teachers and other school…

Explores whether using a review board to approve the use of a movie infringes on a teacher's right to academic freedom. Also examines, in the absence of such a policy, whether teachers can be disciplined for showing movies that some parents, board members, or administrators regard as inappropriate. (68 footnotes) (MLF)

Addresses the legal tension between a teacher's right to privacy and a school board's right to demand exemplary conduct by teachers in and out of school. Concludes with a summary and two flow charts that illustrate the legal analysis that most courts follow when examining these issues. (MLF)

Discusses the differing legal issues involved when a teacher-coach wishes to retain a coaching assignment, in contrast to one who desires to relinquish it. Case law shows that the coaching position has no tenure and teacher-coaches can lose their teaching position when they request relief from coaching. (MLF)

A bill was introduced in the Colorado House of Representatives dealing with provisions for a written employment performance evaluation requirement in conjunction with a teacher dismissal provision based on performance evaluation. This paper reviews the major evaluation concepts introduced into the legislative process (which were based on the…

America's legal-educational history is filled with scores of cases of alleged radical teachers who have been legally excluded or removed from public school positions. Only a few of these cases have involved the First Amendment issue of inclass utterances by radicals. Such cases are significant because they highlight the established society's…

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 principal is faced with myriad legal issues on a daily basis, making it imperative that he or she keep abreast with developing legal issues. The first of four sections, "Students and the Law," surveys federal statutes and landmark Supreme Court decisions pertaining to the rights of students. It addresses legal issues regarding search and…

This first chapter of "The Yearbook of School Law, 1986" summarizes and analyzes over 250 state and federal court decisions handed down in 1985 affecting the legal rights of employees of public schools and state education agencies. Among the topics examined are discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex, national origin, age, and handicap;…

In December 1982, James Keegstra was dismissed from his position as high school social studies teacher in a small Canadian town. Two and one-half years later Keegstra was convicted on the rarely heard criminal charge of willful promotion of hatred towards an identifiable group (Jews) through his classroom teaching. Courtroom testimony made it…