EDUC 233 - Education Law

3 Credits: (3 lecture)

Course Description
This course analyzes state and federal statutes and regulations, and judicial questions that establish the legal framework within the educational institutions and school personnel function.

Prerequisite EDUC 115.

1. Explain the legal foundations and origins of the educational system and the prevailing framework in which the system operates.

2. Describe the interplay of legislatures, administrative agencies, and courts, state and federal.

3. List the functions of school districts as part of the special districts within the Commonwealth.

4. Identify the rights and responsibilities of professional and nonprofessional staff.

5. Identify the rights and responsibilities of students.

6. Communicate in oral and written form the concept of due process of law and its application to school operations and decisions.

7. Explain the principles and theories of judicial decision making and legal research.

Content
1. Historical Perspectives, Role of Federal Government

2. State Governance

3. Church and State

4. Attendance and Student Rights

5. Rights of Handicapped Children

6. Torts, Defamation, Immunity

7. Desegregation, Discrimination

8. Certification, Contracts, Tenure, Teacher Rights and Freedoms

9. Due Process Rights of Teachers

10. Miscellaneous Legal Issues

Student Evaluation
The final grade will be based on class participation, examinations and writing projects.Bibliography
Alexander, Kern, and M. David Alexander. American Public School Law. 3 ed. St. Paul: West, 1992.

Deskbook Encyclopedia of American School Law. Rosemont: Data Research, 1996.

Helm, Virginia. What Educators Should Know about Copyright, Fastback 233. Bloomington: Phi Delta Kappa, 1986.

Hudgins, H. C., Jr., and Richard Vacca. Law and Education. 4th ed. Charlottesville: Michie, 1995.

Imber, Michael, and Tyll van Geel. Education Law. New York: McGraw Hill, 1993.

McCarthy, Martha, Nelda Cambron-McCabe and Stephen Thomas. Public School Law. 4th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.

O’Neil, Robert M. Classrooms in the Crossfire: The Rights and Interests of Students, Parents, Teachers, Administrators, Librarians and the Community. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981.

O’Reilly, Robert C. and Edward T. Green. School Law for the 1990’s. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1992.

Reutter, Edmund E. Jr. The Law of Public Education. 4th ed. Westbury: The Foundation Press, 1994.

Russo, Charles J., ed. The Yearbook of Education Law, 1996. Topeka: National Organization on Legal Problems of Education, 1996.

Sametz, Lynn and Caven S. Mcloughlin. Educators, Children and the Law. Springfield: Thomas, 1985.

Valente, William D. and Christina Valente. Law in the Schools. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River: Merrill, 1998.