• 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.
• Summariaze key components of the rights and responsibilities of teachers as determined by key US Supreme Court decisions.
• Know teachers' and students' rights and responsibilities.

•  Important areas of legal debarte as they relate to education are prayer in schools, racial equality, and teachers and chioldrens'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: the judicial process of drawing conclusions about the itnent of the wording in the Constitution and statutues.
• See figure 6.1 on page 229: sources of legal control in US education as they affect the classroom teacher.
• Three amendaments 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 231.
• The 10th Amendment: grants each of the 50 States to direct educational policy in the State. See page 230.
• The 14th Amendment: protects specified privileges of citizens. See page 231.
• Church and State: the United States has a strong religious heritage.  In colonial times, education was primarily a religious mater.
• See table 6.1 on page 233 for Supreme court cases involving issues of Chruch and State.
• 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 beocme known as the Lemon test: Does the act have a secular purpose? Does the primary effect of the acxt either advance or inhibit religion? and Does the act excessively entangle governement and religion?  See page 232.
• Child Benefit  Theory: sup[port 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 236 for a summary of statements related to public funds and religious education.  Also see table 6.2 on page 237 andfigure 6.3 on page 238.
• Segregation: legal and social separation of people on the basis of their race.
• De jure segregation: segregation on the basis of law, schools policy, or a practice designed to accomplish such separation.
• De facto segregation: segregation resulting from circumstances such as housing patterns rather than law or school policy.
• Discrimination: denial of constitutional rights to an individual or a group.
• Affirmative action: policies and procedures designed to compensate for past discrimination against women and members of certain cultural groups.
• Read about equal opportunity and opportunites for students with disabilites on pages 244-247.

TEACHERS' RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Teachers have the same rights as other citizens thereby having the right to dues process: the legal procedures that must be followed to safeguard individuals from arbitrry, capricious, or unreasonable policies, practices, or actions.
• See table 6.4 on page 249 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 systme of school employement in which educators retain their positions indefinitely unless they are dismissed for legally specified reasons through clearly established procedures.  See pages 250-252.
• 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 256-258 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 258-274.
• See table 6.5 on page 260 for selected US Supreme Court desicision related to students' rights and responsibilities.
• in loc parentis: "in the place of a parent" - a term to describe the impled power and responsibilities of schools.
• Educational malpractice: culpable neglect by a teacher in the performance of his or her duties as an educator.
• There is much talk today about zero tolerance.  See relevant research on page 272.
• Review figure 6.8 on page 273 for a summary of students' rights and responsibilities.

E-Mail: mfitzpat@stac.edu