Education Law

Suspended for Hate List

Posted on December 11, 2007
A student in Colorado composed a "hate list" of less than 5 students at Sagewood Middle School. The list contained "no threat or intent to harm anyone" but was apparently just a list of peers the student in question disliked. Nevertheless, the student was suspended...

Student Work

Posted on December 07, 2007
Over the next few weeks, I will be posting some of my student work. We (the teachers of A308/E310 at Indiana University) had an assignment that asked students to combine their knowledge of educational law with some Web 2.0 tools. The results were very impressive...

Everyday Race and Education

Posted on November 29, 2007
I am posting the following for a couple of reasons. First, Mica Pollock is a great up and coming professor at Harvard University who is doing some cool work from a cultural anthropologist's standpoint. So, the lecture at USC's School of Education is certainly worth your time, especially if you deal with race or affirmative action issues and you are concerned about how we "talk" about that in schools...

Check out this Feel Good Story

Posted on November 28, 2007
For all the bad press that our schools get these days, it is nice when you come across a story that reminds you that we really do have great people in our schools. In Franklin, NH a principal is donating a kidney to one of his students. Here is the story...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Illinois Mandatory Moment of Silence Law

Posted on November 27, 2007
In Illinois, there has been an ongoing controversy over their mandatory moment of silence law. Well, now a judge has ruled that there is no punishment for districts that fail to comply:A mandatory moment of silence foisted upon Illinois schoolchildren by state lawmakers in October is somewhat less mandatory today...

UCEA Liveblogging: Evaluating Educational Leadership

Posted on November 15, 2007
The Taskforce on Evaluating Educational Leadership meeting went well today. Dr. Robert Kottkamp, who was largely responsible for the formating of the taskforce, gave a compelling reflection on how much progress the educational leadership field has made in just a few years...

Live Blogging UCEA

Posted on November 15, 2007
Over the next few days I will be live blogging out of Alexandria, VA as I attend the University Council for Educational Administration conference. Scott McLeod from Iowa State is also live blogging at Dangerously Irrelevant.  UCEA is an educational leadership entity primarily, but because of the large presence of educational law in educational administration programs, there are a substantial number of educational law presentations and some of the best educational law researchers in the world attend the conference (of course, this year it conflicts with ELA, grrr)...

Video Camera Live Feed to Police Headquarters

Posted on November 13, 2007
The top story on the  Drudge Report yesterday was about a school in New Jersey that is sending live feeds from their 20 school cameras directly to the police. The Drudge Report is a conservative leaning news source, so it ran the story to decry the lack of privacy in the modern world...

SREB Report: States need to take more active role in Principal Preparation

Posted on November 12, 2007
It has sort of been a slow news weekend regarding educational law, so I wanted to provide the link to this new report from the Southern Regional Education Board. As any regular reader of the blog knows I am involved in the educational leadership preparation community so when new reports come out calling for greater state intervention, I take notice...

Well, Its Official: No NCLB Reauthorization this Year

Posted on November 08, 2007
Not that it was any secret at this point, but the NCLB Reauthorization is now officially not going to happen in 2007. The key Senators that controlled the Education Committee have stated their plan to take up the law again early next year. Andrew Rotherham at Eduwonk thinks there may be some activity after the primaries, but that it is still a long shot to be reauthorized before the election...

Vouchers Fail in Utah Referendum

Posted on November 08, 2007
The sweeping Utah Voucher plan is no more ... well at least not for a while. The plan that made headlines when it was passed was rejected by the voters Tuesday by a wide margin.     Voters decisively rejected the will of the Utah Legislature and governor Tuesday, defeating what would have been the nation's most comprehensive education voucher program in a referendum blowout...

Brave, But Not Crazy: A Lesson in Teacher Activism and the Power of the State over Curriculum

Posted on November 06, 2007
By now, you are probably aware of the David Wasserman story our of Madison, WI. In protest over the state mandated testing required by the No Child Left Behind Act, David chose to protest the administration of the test. He sat in the teachers' lounge while a colleague was in the classroom giving the test...

The Cost of Educational Finance Suits

Posted on November 05, 2007
At any one time across the U.S. there are around 10 educational finance lawsuits at play. These lawsuits typically involve an entity attempting to sue the state to provide more adequate or equitable funding of the public education system. While I try to keep up with many of them, I don't note all of them on the blog...

NCLB Reauthorization Status Report from LATimes

Posted on October 31, 2007
Just wanted to link all of you to a great status report on NCLB Reauthorization. Kudos to Nicole Gaouette the author. WASHINGTON -- Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) has never been one to back away from a brawl -- he once warned an adversary that if he wanted to fight, it was going to take a while, so he'd better bring lunch...

What to do with Law Students and how to get them into Education?

Posted on October 31, 2007
The New York Times has an interesting article this morning on changing the law school curriculum toward a more practically oriented perspective. Here are a couple of highlights. 1. Schools are moving to include a course on interpreting statutes and regulations in the first year...

Principals in Power in New Orleans?

Posted on October 25, 2007
Even since Hurricane Katrina, the schools in New Orleans have been in a state of constant flux. Rules are being rewritten and there are more charter schools and other non-traditional education opportunities than ever before. The latest is a proposal by Recovery Superintendent Paul Vallas (former Superintendent of Chicago and Philadelphia)...

Reader Comment Strip Search of 13 Year Old - Redding v. Stafford

Posted on October 23, 2007
Typically I don't post reader comments on the main blog page, but this one warranted special attention. About a month ago I wrote on a strip search case out of the 9th Circuit: Redding v. Stafford. The case involved a strip search of a 13 year old by school administrators who were looking for prescription Ibuprofen...

PDA, Sexual Harassment and Bullying - Where are the lines?

Posted on October 19, 2007
Interesting story in the Dallas Morning News this morning on public displays of affection among students (PDA). Schools take hard line against public displays of affection Critics say bans on hugging, touching go too far in bid to prevent sexual harassment suits 04:51 AM CDT on Friday, October 19, 2007 By STELLA M...

Special Ed Law Blog and Board Buzz Mixing it up over Recent Tom F. Case

Posted on October 17, 2007
Just wanted to clue my readers in to the mini-debate that went on between the Special Education Law Blog and Board Buzz at NSBA. And, a hearty kudos to the authors for mixing it up a little. We could use more of that in the educational law blogosphere...

President Bush on NCLB Reauthorization and Supplemental Services

Posted on October 17, 2007
As sort of a follow up to the post linking to a report I coauthored on NCLB choice and SES, I want to post this link to some CBS News Video of President Bush in Arkansas talking about NCLB. Interestingly, he states that if Congress passes a weakened NCLB, he will veto it...

New CEEP Report Out: Outcomes of the School Choice and Supplemental Educational Services Provisions of NCLB

Posted on October 16, 2007
A new report titled, Outcomes of the School Choice and Supplemental Educational Services Provisions of NCLB is out today at the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University. I was a coauthor on the report along with Terry Spradlin...

Banned Books at Time.com

Posted on October 15, 2007
Time has a list of banned books and the controversy surrounding them on their website (click next in gray bar to see more).Some surprises in there including a couple of children's books.                                                                

Education 2.0

Posted on October 15, 2007
Whenever I present on educational law I almost always run into questions about educational technology. I have even presented on that specific topic: Educational Law in Light of the Technological Revolution. So, it was no surprise last week when myself and some colleagues were presenting to a group of women administrators that a question came up on the law related to educational technology...

Tom F. Case Already Published

Posted on October 10, 2007
In what has to be some sort of land speed record, the Supreme Court has already published the Board of Education of the City School District of the City of New York v. Tom F. case. Here is the full text of the opinion:PER CURIAM.The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court...

Teacher Suing to Carry Gun in School

Posted on October 09, 2007
Sort of a shocking story out of Oregon yesterday: MEDFORD, Ore. - High school English teacher Shirley Katz insists she needs to take her pistol to work because she fears her ex-husband could show up and try to harm her. She?s also worried about a Columbine-style attack...

More on Board of Education of the City of New York v. Tom F.: Oral Argument

Posted on October 06, 2007
As promised, here is a little more on the Oral Argument at the Supreme Court in the case of Board of Education of the City of New York v. Tom F.                                                                              Jim Gerl's Analysis at the Special Education Law Blog: When the oral argument began, Justice Kennedy left the Courtroom...

First Amendment Notes

Posted on October 05, 2007
Couple of school related First Amendment notes to pass along. First, the Supreme Court this week denied review of the Mayer v. Monroe County Community School Corporation Case. The Education Law and Policy Blog has more on the details of the case. I am sort of disappointed the Supreme Court denied this case...

More Economists Suggesting Greater Investment in Education

Posted on October 04, 2007
My daily reading brought me across another interesting article today related to education and economics. In George Will's Washington Post Editorial today, he has a profile of the young economist Austan Goolsbee who is both an economics professor at the University of Chicago and an advisor to the Sen...

Search and Seizure Poll

Posted on October 04, 2007
Scott McLeod's recent post at Dangerously Irrelevant, which I linked to yesterday, got me wondering how people perceive the extent of searching going on in schools. So, I thought I would ask you ... what do you think?Poll:

School Administrators Taking Search & Seizure too Far?

Posted on October 03, 2007
Great post today at Dangerously Irrelevant on what the Fourth Amendment should mean to school leaders. First, Scott lays out all the ways that we are or can be monitoring our school children's every move in schools. Then, he presents an interesting question of just how frequently do school administrators trample on the Fourth Amendment in the name of school safety? I, like Scott, believe it happens far too often and is something that educational law instructors need to focus on more heavily when teaching about search and seizure in preparation programs...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.