Education Law Commons^™

Private Schools' Role And Rights In Setting Vaccination Policy: A Constitutional And Statutory Puzzle, Hillel Y. Levin

Scholarly Works

Measles and other vaccine-preventable childhood diseases are making a comeback, as a growing number of parents are electing not to vaccinate their children. May private schools refuse admission to these students? This deceptively simple question raises complex issues of First Amendment law and statutory interpretation, and it also has implications for other current hot-button issues in constitutional law, including whether private schools may discriminate against LGBTQ students. This Article is the first to address the issue of private schools’ rights to exclude unvaccinated children. It finds that the answer is “it depends.” It also offers a model law that states …

The Character Of Law: A Normative Critique Of Social-Emotional Learning Laws, Meredith R. Aska Mcbride

Northwestern University Law Review

This Note examines a widespread but barely acknowledged phenomenon within education law: the recent enactment, in all fifty states, of statutes and standards regarding students’ social and emotional learning within public schools. Despite significant empirical evidence that curricular and disciplinary interventions targeting students’ social and emotional skills are effective at building these skills and, in turn, enhancing students’ academic and long-term outcomes, this Note argues that social and emotional learning should not be legislated. Drawing on James Scott’s seminal critique of processes of state rationalization and Jal Mehta’s application of this critique to education policy, this Note shows that the …

Federal Financing Of Higher Education At A Crossroads: The Evolution Of The Student Loan Debt Crisis And The Reauthorization Of The Higher Education Act Of 1965, Camilla E. Watson

Scholarly Works

Currently, there are 44.2 million Americans holding student loan debt collectively totaling $1.5 trillion. This massive debt has a profound effect, not only on the lives of the debtors, but also on the national economy because it prevents the debtors from buying homes and cars and creating new businesses. This debt is also speculated to be a likely trigger for the next housing bubble because student loans, like the subprime mortgage loans underlying the 2008 financial crisis, are securitized and sold to investors. But many of those with student loans struggle to find jobs that will enable them to pay …

Against Shaming: Preserving Dignity, Decency, And A Moral-Educative Mission In American Schools, Amanda Harmon Cooley

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

While there has been an extensive amount of scholarly discourse regarding the propriety of shaming as a criminal sanction, there has been almost no critical discussion about the validity of shaming punishments as disciplinary measures in schools. This Article is designed to initiate this needed dialogue by arguing for the cessation of school shaming through a legal theory lenses. To accomplish this objective, Part I of this Article provides a definitional foundation of shaming punishments. Part II of the Article presents the normative rejection of school shaming, which is grounded in both legal punishment theory and educational theory. It …

Assessing Students' Civil Rights Claims Against School Resource Officers, Kerrin C. Wolf

Pace Law Review

Police officers stationed in public schools, commonly referred to as school resource officers (SROs), have become commonplace in the United States over the past twenty-five years. Their primary responsibility is to maintain order and safety in schools, but they also serve as counselors and mentors for students, and teach classes related to drug and alcohol abuse, gang avoidance, and other topics. SROs’ presence in schools raises important legal questions because they interact with students on a daily basis and are directly involved in schools’ efforts to control student behavior through school discipline and security. Additionally, a series of Supreme Court …

Nurturing Filipino Creativity: Philippine Education Policies In Support Of The Creative Industries, Glorife Samodio

Center for Business Research and Development

The future of the creative industries shows much promise in the Philippines. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the creative industries more than doubled its size from 2003 to 2012 (UNCTAD, 2016). Thus, its development is now carefully monitored, and programs are being created by different government agencies, with the goal of making the Philippines competitive in the creative field versus other countries in the region.

Despite the continuous growth of the sector, the expected increase in financial outcomes is quite low as the creative industries in the Philippines and Southeast Asia do not seem …

Functional Behavioral Assessments And Behavioral Intervention Plans: Review Of The Law And Recent Cases, Cynthia A. Dieterich, Nicole N. Snyder, Christine J. Villani

Education Faculty Publications

Case law is a tangible tool school leaders can consider when designing FBA and BIP policies to address social, emotional and behavioral challenges. In addition, one intangible consideration is nurturing the relationship between school leaders and parents. When school leaders, parents, and attorneys work collaboratively to support students who have behavioral needs in a reasonable and timely fashion, the student’s needs are addressed earlier, parents can become active participants in the child’s program, and school leaders can minimize the risk of using valuable resources in court costs and attorney fees.

School Desegregation 2.0: What Is Required To Finally Integrate America's Public Schools, Jim Hilbert

Faculty Scholarship

More than ten years have passed since the United States Supreme Court last addressed school desegregation. In its abbreviated tenure in the decades following Brown v. Board of Education, school desegregation was successful in many respects. Longstanding policies of state-sponsored educational apartheid eventually ended. A great many school buildings became more diverse. Countless students of color gained access to improved academic opportunities and better life outcomes. A consensus formed around the positive impacts that desegregation could have on both students of color and white students. When courts retreated from upholding desegregation policies, many communities developed their own voluntary plans, some …

The Texas Supreme Court Retreats From Protecting Texas Students, Albert H. Kauffman

Faculty Articles

The Texas Supreme Court has now fully retreated from a powerful line of previous Texas Supreme Court decisions protecting the rights of public school students and low-wealth districts.' Returning to Texas history's dual system of poor districts and wealthy districts, the Court removed itself from its constitutional role as a vital ingredient in progressing toward school finance equity and adequacy and has instead regressed to a dual school system in Texas that is divided between poor and wealthy districts.

This regression becomes evident by analyzing seven major school finance decisions: (1) Edgewood Independent School District v. Kirby (Edgewood I); (2) …

End Of The Racial Age: Reflections On The Changing Racial And Ethnic Ancestry Of Blacks On Affirmative Action, Kevin D. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Sector Agnosticism And The Coming Transformation Of Education Law, Nicole S. Garnett

Vanderbilt Law Review

Over the past two decades, the landscape of elementary and secondary education in the United States has shifted dramatically, due to the emergence and expansion of privately provided, but publicly funded, schooling options (including both charter schools and private school choice devices like vouchers, tax credits, and educational savings accounts). This transformation in the delivery of K12 education is the result of a confluence of factors-discussed in detail below-that increasingly lead education reformers to support efforts to increase the number of high quality schools serving disadvantaged students across all three educational sectors, instead of focusing exclusively on reforming urban public …

A Few Words Of Caution As The Supreme Court Considers Fry V. Napoleon Community Schools, Kevin Golembiewski

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

This term, the Supreme Court will consider Fry v. Napoleon Community Schools. Fry implicates a circuit split on the proper scope of the exhaustion requirement in 20 U.S.C. § 1415(l) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). That section requires parents of students with disabilities to exhaust state administrative remedies “before the filing of a civil action . . . seeking relief that is also available under” the IDEA. Two different approaches to this requirement have emerged among the courts of appeals: an “injury-centered” approach and a “relief-centered” approach. Under the injury-centered approach, exhaustion is required when a …

Schwartz V. Lopez And The Fate Of Nevada's Education Savings Accounts, Brittany Lee Walker

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Distance Education And Intellectual Property: The Realities Of Copyright Law And The Culture Of Higher Education, Michele J. Le Moal-Gray

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Effective Litigation Strategies To Improve State Education And Social Service Systems, Albert H. Kauffman

Faculty Articles

Texas border area Latino plaintiffs brought state court litigation, the Lulac case, to improve higher education opportunities in the Texas- Mexico borderlands. Plaintiffs successfully parlayed their trial court judgment into a massive influx of resources and permanent improvement in higher education in the Texas border. The Article describes the history of the Lulac case and includes an original analysis of the improvement of higher education in the Texas border area. The Article then develops a model for the successful integration of litigation, legislation, public advocacy and community involvement, and applies this model to the Lulac case and the Texas school …

Rethinking Law Enforcement Officers In Schools, Jason P. Nance

UF Law Faculty Publications

A recent event that occurred in a South Carolina classroom illustrates why there should be concern about assigning law enforcement officers to work in public schools. In October of 2015, a teacher called a law enforcement officer into a classroom to handle a student behavior problem. A female student was using a cell phone in violation of school rules. Other students in the classroom captured what happened next by video. The videos show that when the student refused to exit the classroom, the officer grabbed her by the neck, flipped her and her desk to the floor, and then forcibly …

Dismantling The School-To-Prison Pipeline: Tools For Change, Jason P. Nance

UF Law Faculty Publications

The school-to-prison pipeline is one of our nation’s most formidable challenges. It refers to the trend of directly referring students to law enforcement for committing certain offenses at school or creating conditions under which students are more likely to become involved in the criminal justice system, such as excluding them from school. This article analyzes the school-to-prison pipeline’s devastating consequences on students, its causes, and its disproportionate impact on students of color. But most importantly, this article comprehensively identifies and describes specific, evidence-based tools to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline that lawmakers, school administrators, and teachers in all areas can immediately …

Schools Fail To Get It Right On Rap Music, Andrea L. Dennis

Popular Media

School officials treat rap music as a serious threat to the school environment. Fear and misunderstanding of, as well as bias against, this highly popular and lucrative musical art form negatively shape their perspectives on this vital aspect of youth culture.

As a result, students who express themselves through rap music in a way that challenges the schoolhouse setting risk the possibility of suspension, permanent exclusion and referral to the criminal justice system.

The ongoing case of Taylor Bell is the latest and most complex battleground on which this issue is playing out.

Gentrification And Urban Public School Reforms: The Interest Divergence Dilemma, Erika K. Wilson

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Benign Prior Restraint Rule For Public School Classroom Speech, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article is a contribution to a symposium on schools and free speech. It advances the claim that the First Amendment doctrines that apply to the classroom should adopt a benign prior restraint rule. In the case of teacher classroom speech, the Garcetti rule should apply where the government’s action in interfering with the speech constitutes a prior restraint—the First Amendment should not reach such interference. In cases where a teacher first speaks and then is later punished for that speech, however, basic notions of due process and the dangers of arbitrary governmental decision making are far more pressing, and …

An Idea For Special Education: Why The Idea Should Have Primacy Over The Ada In Adjudicating Education Claims For Students With Disabilities, Angela Estrella-Lemus

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Private In Name Only: A Statutory And Constitutional Analysis Of Milwaukee’S Private School Voucher Program, Julie F. Mead

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Plyler Students At Work: The Case For Granting Law Licenses To Undocumented Immigrants, Lindy Stevens

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Big Philanthropy’S Unrestrained Influence On Public Education: A Call For Change, Noelle Quam

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

How Reconstructing Education Federalism Could Fulfill The Aims Of Rodriguez, Kimberly J. Robinson

Law Faculty Publications

In the Rodriguez decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the plaintiffs did not have a right under the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause, which required the state of Texas to remedy disparities in funding for schools in high-wealth and low-wealth school districts. One of the principal reasons that the Court rejected the plaintiffs' claims was the need to maintain the current balance of power between the federal and state governments over education. Indeed, the Court acknowledged in Rodriguez that even though all equal protection claims implicate federalism, "it would be difficult to imagine a case having a greater potential impact …

Student Press Exceptionalism, Sonja R. West

Scholarly Works

Constitutional protection for student speakers is an issue that has been hotly contested for almost 50 years. Several commentators have made powerful arguments that theCourt has failed to sufficiently protect the First Amendment rights of all students. But this debate has overlooked an even more troubling reality about the current state ofexpressive protection for student — the especially harmful effect of the Court’s precedents on student journalists. Under the Court’s jurisprudence, schools may regulate with far greater breadth and ease the speech of student journalists than of their non-press classmates. Schools are essentially free to censor the student press even …

Beyond The Schoolhouse Gates: The Unprecedented Expansion Of School Surveillance Authority Under Cyberbulling Laws, Emily Suski

Faculty Publications

For several years, states have grappled with the problem of cyberbullying and its sometimes devastating effects. Because cyberbullying often occurs between students, most states have understandably looked to schools to help address the problem. To that end, schools in forty-six states have the authority to intervene when students engage in cyberbullying. This solution seems all to the good unless a close examination of the cyberbullying laws and their implications is made. This Article explores some of the problematic implications of the cyberbullying laws. More specifically, it focuses on how the cyberbullying laws allow schools unprecedented surveillance authority over students. This …

A Common Law Constitutionalism For The Right To Education, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article makes two claims, one descriptive and the other normative. The descriptive claim is that individual rights to education have not been realized under state constitutions because the currently dominant structure of education reform litigation prevents such realization. In state constitutional education clause claims, both pleadings and adjudication generally focus on the equality or adequacy of the system as a whole, rather than on any particular student's educational resources or attainment. The Article traces the roots of the currently dominant systemic approach, and finds these roots in federal institutional reform litigation. This systemic focus leads to a systemic, rather …

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 …

Brief Of Law Professors As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioner, Scott R. Bauries, Sheldon H. Nahmod, Paul M. Secunda, Joshua D. Branson

Law Faculty Advocacy

Amici curiae respectfully submit this brief in support of Petitioner, Edward Lane, encouraging the reversal of the judgment of the Eleventh Circuit, because the judgment below is inconsistent with both the Court’s general historical approach to public employee speech and the specific approach to such speech that the Court adopted in Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 (2006).

Amici are law professors who teach and write about the constitutional rights of public employees and have published a number of scholarly articles on these topics. Amici have no financial stake in the outcome of this case, and in this brief …