• Explain the relationships between the US Constitution and the role and responsibilities of the states in ensuring the availability of public schools for all children.
• Describe critical issues about the role of public schools for which the courts are being used to resolve points of debate.
• Identify and describe court established guidelines related to the use of public funds for private schools.
  
• Identify and describe court established guidelines related to religious activities in public schools.
• Outline the role of statutes and court decisions related to civil rights and affirmative action as they relate to schools.
  
• Summarize key components of the rights and responsibilities of teachers as determined by key US Supreme Court decisions.
•   Be clear about a teacher's responsibilities and liabilities related to negligence.
• Distinguish between students' rights and responsibilities as citizens and their rights and responsibilities as students..

•  Important areas of legal debate as they relate to education are prayer in schools, racial equality, and teachers and children's rights as citizens versus their rights in school.
• The legal foundation of the US is the US Constitution and a pivotal part of the Constitution is the Bill of Rights.

LEGAL ASPECTS OF EDUCATION 

• Enabling laws: laws make if possible for educators to do certain things.
• Judicial interpretive process: the judicial process of drawing conclusions about the intent of the wording in the Constitution and statutes.
• See figure 6.1 on page 189: sources of legal control in US education as they affect the classroom teacher.
• Three amendments to the US Constitution are particularly significant to the governance of education - the First, Tenth, and Fourteenth.
• The 1st Amendment: ensures freedom of speech, of religion, and of the press, as well as the right to petition.  See page 190.
• The 10th Amendment: grants each of the 50 States to direct educational policy in the State. See page 189.
• The 14th Amendment: protects specified privileges of citizens. See page 190.
• Church and State: the United States has a strong religious heritage.  In colonial times, education was primarily a religious matter.
• See table 6.1 on page 192 for Supreme court cases related to the use of public funds for private education..
• Important US Supreme Court decision was the Lemon Case.  Out of this case came the Lemon Test for excessive entanglement (1971).  The court posed three questions that have since become known as the Lemon test: Does the act have a secular purpose? Does the primary effect of the act either advance or inhibit religion? and Does the act excessively entangle government and religion?  See page 192.
• Child Benefit  Theory: support the provision of benefits to children in non-public schools with no benefits to the schools or to a religion.
• See figure 6.2 on page 194 for a summary of statements related to public funds and religious education.  Also see table 6.3 on page 195 and figure 6.4 on page 196.
• Segregation: legal and social separation of people on the basis of their race.
• De jure segregation: segregation of students on the basis of law, schools policy, or a practice designed to accomplish such separation.
• De facto segregation: segregation of students resulting from circumstances such as housing patterns rather than law or school policy.
• Discrimination: denial of constitutional rights to an individual or a group.
• Review table 6.7 on page 200 which summarizes statement on segregation and desegregation.
  
• Affirmative action: policies and procedures designed to compensate for past discrimination against women and members of certain cultural groups.  See table 6.8 on page 201 for history of affirmative action.
  
• Read about equal opportunity and opportunities for students with disabilities on pages 201-204..

TEACHERS' RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Teachers have the same rights as other citizens thereby having the right to due process: the legal procedures that must be followed to safeguard individuals from arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable policies, practices, or actions.
• See table 6.9 on page 206 for selected US Supreme Court decisions related to Teachers' Rights and Responsibilities.
• Most states require potential teachers to be certified.  Teacher certification and licensure: process whereby each state determines the requirements for certification and for obtaining a license to teach.
• Teacher tenure legislation exists in most states.  Tenure is a system of school employment in which educators retain their positions indefinitely unless they are dismissed for legally specified reasons through clearly established procedures.
• Right to strike: judges generally have held that public employees do not have the right to strike.
• Academic freedom: the opportunity for a teacher to teach without coercion, censorship, or other restrictive interference.
• Read carefully pages 215-217 concerning liability for negligence.
• Tort: is an act (or the omission of an act) that violates the private rights of an individual.
• Liability: responsibility for the failure to use reasonable care when such failure results in injury to another.

STUDENTS' RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Study pages 217-227.
• Read the interesting professional dilemma: "Drug Testing of Student Athletes: prevention or problem?" on page 218.
  
• See table 6.12 on page 219 for selected US Supreme Court decision related to students' rights and responsibilities.
• in loco parentis: "in the place of a parent" - a term to describe the implied power and responsibilities of schools.
• Read relevant research on "Zero tolerance, zero sense" on page 221.
  
• Educational malpractice: culpable neglect by a teacher in the performance of his or her duties as an educator.
• Review table 6.13 on page 227 for a summary of students' rights and responsibilities.

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E-Mail: mfitzpat@stac.edu