Education Commons^™

Beware: Teachers Who Blog, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

A recent case from Pennsylvania, Munroe v. Central Bucks School District (2014), raises fresh questions about the free speech and expression rights of public school teachers as they use the Internet. In Munroe, when a board terminated a high school teacher’s employment for making controversial postings about her students and colleagues on her personal blog—postings that proved disruptive—a federal trial court rejected the educator’s claim that she was dismissed in retaliation for exercising her right to free speech.

Before reviewing the facts and judicial opinion in Munroe, it is worth noting that blogs (a term coined in the late 1990s …

Legal Issues Surrounding Christmas In Public Schools, Charles J. Russo, Ralph D. Mawdsley

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

As the United States becomes increasingly religiously diverse, surprisingly relatively little litigation has occurred over the celebration of religious holy days and holidays in public schools. Although the Supreme Court has addressed Christmas displays on two occasions—in Lynch v. Donnelly (1984) and County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union (1989)—neither case directly concerned public schools.

The status of holiday celebrations in public schools is a key, if seasonal, issue in light of the importance of religion in the lives of many Americans, as educators seek to teach students to appreciate diversity in all of its manifestations, including religion.

Race-Based Preferences And The Supreme Court, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

So-called race-conscious remedies ensure that all citizens are considered fairly and equally for employment and education opportunities. The legal status of race-conscious remedies continues to present challenges for education leaders, policymakers, and lawmakers.

Negligence, Student Supervision, And School Business Officials, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

With a new school year on the horizon, the topic of adequate student supervision is once again on educators’ minds. Whether students are attending classes, playing in school yards, or participating in extracurricular sports or other activities, educators are at risk of liability for injuries that children sustain if officials fail to meet their duty to protect youngsters from unreasonable risks of harm.

Accordingly, awareness of the principles relating to the legal duty to supervise students adequately and the defenses to negligence can go a long way toward shielding school districts from liability. As evidenced by the representative cases cited …

Religious Freedom In A Brave New World: How Leaders In Faith-Based Schools Can Follow Their Beliefs In Hiring, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

A confluence of litigation at the Supreme Court raises important, yet potentially conflicting, questions about the freedom of employers in religious schools¹ to hire teachers and staff members. On the one hand, in Hosanna-Tabor v. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission,² a unanimous Court reasoned that the ministerial exception granted religious leaders alone the authority to choose who is qualified to teach in their schools. On the other hand, the Court’s rulings on same sex-unions seem to be ushering in a brave new world. For example, in United States v. Windsor,³ the Court struck down the Defense …

Workers’ Compensation And The School Business Official, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Workers’ compensation laws emerged during the Industrial Revolution to protect individuals and their families from salary losses and medical expenses that resulted from work-related injuries, illnesses, or death. The laws allow employees to receive partial or full benefits temporarily or permanently, depending on the seriousness of their conditions.

In light of the significance of workers’ compensation laws for school board budgets and staffing, this column begins with a brief history of the statutes; examines the components of a typical workers’ compensation statute, along with selected representative recent litigation; and then offers recommendations for school business officials (SBOs), their boards, and …

Idea And Alternative Dispute Resolution: A Primer, Charles J. Russo, Allan G. Osborne Jr.

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) procedures are the cornerstone of the provisions in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that mandate the timely resolution of disagreements between parents and school officials.

ADR procedures are in the form of mediation and resolution sessions that are held before culminating in due process hearings. The sessions are designed to be speedier, less costly, and less adversarial than litigation. Subject to infrequent exceptions, disagreements can be subject to judicial review only after parents and education officials have exhausted the administrative remedies under the IDEA. The provisions establish time frames that parties must meet before …

Changing Times In School Law - Introduction, Jeanne L. Surface, David Stader, Anthony Armenta

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

As 2012 came to a close, the re-election of President Obama assures the continuation of state waivers to No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the use of student growth modeling to make teacher and administrator employment decisions, and more accountability measures for PK-12 public schools and public and private institutions of higher education. The inexplicable school shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, once again opened the political discussion about school safety. The reauthorization of Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEIA) looms on the horizon. The U.S. Supreme Court has once again ventured into the divisive affirmative …

Student Records And Privacy, Charles J. Russo, Allan G. Osborne Jr.

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which became federal law in 1974, addresses the rights of students and their parents with regard to educational records. The two goals of FERPA are (1) to grant parents and eligible students, typically those over age 18, access to their educational records and (2) to limit the access of outsiders to those records. FERPA, along with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its regulations, also has a significant effect on the delivery of special education for students with disabilities (20 U.S.C. § 1232[g]; 34 C.F.R. § 99.4).

A Primer On Charter Schools And The Law, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The charter school movement began in 1991, when Minnesota enacted the first law authorizing their creation. To date, 41 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico permit the creation of charter schools, according to the National Charter School Resource Center (n.d.).

Charter schools, public schools of choice, are usually operated as not-for-profit institutions independently or occasionally in conjunction with public organizations, such as colleges and universities. As such, they have generally survived challenges to their constitutionality.

This column provides a primer for education leaders on the legal basics associated with the operations of charter schools. It does not …

Home Schooling And Sports Participation, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

As the popularity of home schooling grows, its supporters increasingly seek opportunities for their children to access programming offered by their local public school districts. Home-schooling parents have been most vocal in their wish for their children to participate in extracurricular activities in public schools—particularly sports.

Because parents who homeschool have failed in litigation regarding their children’s ability to participate in extracurricular activities, they have turned their efforts to state legislative action with a fair degree of success. In fact, when the Ohio General Assembly (2013) recently enacted a statute directing school boards to allow participation in sports and other …

Making Room At The Inn: Implications Of 'Christian Legal Society V. Martinez' For Public University Housing Professionals, Michael D. Waggoner, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court ruling in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, its most important case to date on student associational activities, upheld a policy at a public law school in California that required recognized student organizations (or clubs) to admit "all-comers" even if they disagreed with organizational goals and values, rather than retracing the work of Moran and her colleagues, who examined related issues such as religious expression in public areas of residence halls, this article analyzes the potential impact of CLS, since membership in campus organizations clearly overlaps with the kinds of issues that students and housing professionals deal …

Has Time Expired For Time-Out Rooms?, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

An issue that continues to raise serious concerns for education leaders surrounds the treatment of students with disabilities who behave unacceptably. In Honig v. Doe (1988), the Supreme Court acknowledged that in such cases, among the procedures available to educators is “the use of study carrels, timeouts, detention, or the restriction of privileges” (p. 325). Time-out rooms—typically small rooms where students who misbehave are sent until they can safely regain their composure—continue to be used in most jurisdictions, subject to state oversight via statutes and regulations (U.S. Department of Education 2010).