Public school districts that have new policies establishing minimal competency programs that consequently deny some handicapped students a standard diploma have been subjected to litigation. Legal decisions are discussed, addressing, first, the question of fair standards and, second, the fairness of the procedures for administering new graduation…

Courts have been reluctant to interfere with the decision-making authority of local school boards. However, a reduction-in-force (RIF) decision can be legally challenged by a discharged employee with evidence that the school board has either: (1) acted arbitrarily or capriciously, (2) failed to comply with procedural mandates, or (3) utilized…

A review of the problems of vicarious liability of parents for their children's vandalism to school property reveals that in all states parents can be held responsible if it can be established that the vandalism was the reasonably traceable result of lack of supervision or misdirected parenting. Almost all legislatures feel it is appropriate to…

This document reviews the impact of the Aguilar v. Felton Supreme Court decision requiring that Chapter 1 compensatory education services must not be delivered to students in private sectarian schools. The focus is on how these services have been implemented in such schools. Fifteen school districts were surveyed for demographic data, comments…

By deciding some cases and refusing others, the United States Supreme Court has begun to provide answers to some of the legal questions concerning the interpretation of two federal statutes: Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (Public Law 94-142). The first of these statutes…

On November 2, 1983, the subcommittee heard testimony concerning H.R. 3533 which would require the United States Court of Claims to hear eight claims originally filed against the United States Government by the Navajo Tribe in 1950 and later dismissed on technical grounds. The claims alleged that the Government improperly managed tribal resources…

A review on both the Federal level and on a State-by-State basic of the latest and the greatest developments in the field of school integration and race relations embracing the period February- April, 1974. (JM)

Disputes the belief that there is some way to motivate people who are culturally different to become like whites: if Indian legal rights are protected only to the extent that the Indians conform to white society, then one is not talking about legal rights at all. (Author/JM)

In this speech the question of whether the federal government is holding itself to the same civil rights standards it enforces in the private and public sector is addressed. Problem areas upon which the Carter administration is focusing are examined. These areas include the failure to eliminate discrimination against federal employees, the failure…

Federal regulations to prevent deceptive advertising seek to balance the advertiser's freedom of speech with protection of the consumer. This paper discusses what the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has done to regulate advertising and evaluates the adequacy of its controls. The commission uses cease-and-desist orders, affirmative disclosure,…

The speaker examines the issue of the legal liability of individual school board members as it has arisen as a result of such court cases as Wood v. Strickland and Goss v. Lopez. The discussion includes questions of infringement on students' and teachers' rights and cases of school officials acting as individuals rather than in an official…

This testimony, by the General Counsel for the National Association Advancement Colored People before the May 1974 public hearings of the New York City Commission on Human Rights, discusses the case entitled "Jeffrey Hart et al Vs The Community School Board of Brooklyn, District 21", which has come to be known as both the Weinstein case…

During the 1970s, courts repeatedly overruled acts of administrative censorship of high school publications, even when the publication in question included "earthy" language or attacks on school officials. The trend toward expanding students' First Amendment rights began in 1969 with the "tinker" ruling, which reaffirmed the right of three…

This study of midwestern cable television systems was designed to accomplish three purposes: (1) compare recommended administration and franchise provisions with actual administration and franchise provisions to see how these policies relate to the future development of educational channels; (2) determine how educators and cable managers work…

Recourse to the courts for resolution of conflicts has become increasingly frequent, particularly in matters concerning American Indians. Important to this upsurge is the commitment to Indian sovereignty and the awareness among Indians that their rights can be asserted and established in courts. The issues of Indian self-determination and tribal…