Education Law

Education news, analysis, and opinion about important court cases dealing with education
Students at Valencia Newcomer School wait to change classes Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, in Phoenix. Children from around the world are learning the English skills and American classroom customs they need to succeed at so-called newcomer schools. Valencia Newcomer School in Phoenix is among a handful of such public schools in the United States dedicated exclusively to helping some of the thousands of children who arrive in the country annually.
Students at Valencia Newcomer School wait to change classes Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, in Phoenix. Children from around the world are learning the English skills and American classroom customs they need to succeed at so-called newcomer schools. Under a 1982 Supreme Court precedent, public schools can't charge tuition to children who are new arrivals in the United States.
Ross D. Franklin/AP
Law & Courts Explainer Undocumented Students Have the Right to a Free Education. This Is Why
A landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling protected undocumented students' access to free public education. Some lawmakers seek to overturn it.
Ileana Najarro, November 15, 2024
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8 min read
Image of a classroom under a magnifying glass.
Tarras79 and iStock/Getty
Standards & Accountability State Accountability Systems Aren't Actually Helping Schools Improve
The systems under federal education law should do more to shine a light on racial disparities in students' performance, a new report says.
Libby Stanford, September 26, 2024
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6 min read
Bible laying on a school desk in an empty classroom full of desks.
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Equity & Diversity Explainer Religion in Public Schools, Explained
Public schools cannot promote any particular religion, and they must respect the individual religious beliefs of students and staff.
Evie Blad, August 23, 2024
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10 min read
Topeka, Kansas, USA: Afternoon sun shines on the school at the center of the Brown v Board of Education legal decision that ended educational segregation.
Matt Gush/iStock
Equity & Diversity Opinion When Did We Become Disillusioned With Desegregation?
Forty years ago, the civil rights attorney and professor Derrick Bell diagnosed where the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education went wrong.
Mary Hendrie, May 30, 2024
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7 min read
A hand holds a scale weighing integration against resource allocation in observation of the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education case.
Noelle Rx for Education Week
Equity & Diversity Opinion 70 Years After 'Brown,' Schools Are Still Separate and Unequal
The legal strategy to prioritize school integration has had some unforeseen consequences in the decades since.
Sharif El-Mekki, May 20, 2024
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4 min read
People mill around the third floor of the Kansas Statehouse in front of a Brown v. Board of Education mural before hearing from speakers recognizing the 70th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case on April 29, 2024, in Topeka, Kan.
People mill around the third floor of the Kansas Statehouse in front of a <i>Brown </i>v. <i>Board of Education</i> mural before hearing from speakers recognizing the 70th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case on April 29, 2024, in Topeka, Kan.
Evert Nelson/The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP
Law & Courts Brown v. Board of Education: 70 Years of Progress and Challenges
The milestone for the historic 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down racial segregation in schools is marked by a range of tributes
Mark Walsh, May 14, 2024
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12 min read
High school English teacher Puja Clifford sits below signs posted on a wall in her classroom at San Francisco International High School in San Francisco on April 19, 2016. The school accommodated migrant students by rewriting young-adult novels at a basic level to spark the newcomers' interest in reading.
High school English teacher Puja Clifford sits below signs posted on a wall in her classroom at San Francisco International High School in San Francisco on April 19, 2016. English learner education, including for migrant students, has evolved over the last 50 days after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case.
Jeff Chiu/AP
English Learners Timeline: The U.S Supreme Court Case That Established English Learners' Rights
Fifty years ago the landmark Lau v. Nichols case set the stage for federal English-learner policy.
Ileana Najarro, January 19, 2024
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4 min read
High school teacher Tara Hobson talks with a student in the school cafeteria at San Francisco International High School in San Francisco on April 19, 2016. Some districts have gone to extraordinary lengths to accommodate migrant students, who often come to join relatives, sometimes escaping criminal gangs or extreme poverty. San Francisco International High School rewrote young-adult novels at a basic level to spark the newcomers' interest in reading.
High school teacher Tara Hobson talks with a student in the school cafeteria at San Francisco International High School in San Francisco on April 19, 2016. The quality of education for English learners, including migrant students in San Francisco, has evolved over the last years in part due to landmark civil rights Supreme Court decision.
Jeff Chiu/AP
English Learners How a 1974 U.S. Supreme Court Case Still Influences English-Learner Education
Fifty years ago Lau v. Nichols required schools to provide language support to English learners to ensure access to public education.
Ileana Najarro, January 19, 2024
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7 min read
Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court William O. Douglas is shown in an undated photo.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, shown in an undated photo, wrote the opinion in <i>Lau</i> v. <i>Nichols</i>, the 1974 decision holding that the San Francisco school system had denied Chinese-speaking schoolchildren a meaningful opportunity to participate in their education.
AP
Law & Courts In 1974, the Supreme Court Recognized English Learners' Rights. The Story Behind That Case
The Lau v. Nichols ruling said students have a right to a "meaningful opportunity" to participate in school, but its legacy is complex.
Mark Walsh, January 19, 2024
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12 min read
Linda Brown Smith stands in front of the Sumner School in Topeka, Kan., on May 8, 1964. The refusal of the public school to admit Brown in 1951, then nine years old, because she is black, led to the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the "separate but equal" clause and mandated that schools nationwide must be desegregated.
Linda Brown Smith stands in front of the Sumner School in Topeka, Kan., in 1964, a segregated white school where she had been denied enrollment in 1951, leading to the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down the "separate but equal" doctrine in the case that bears her family name, <i>Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.</i> The high court on Jan. 8 turned away an effort by descendants of the litigants in a companion desegregation case from South Carolina to rename the historic decision for their case, <i>Briggs</i> v. <i>Elliott</i>.
AP
Law & Courts U.S. Supreme Court Declines Bid to Rename 'Brown v. Board of Education'
Descendants argued that their case, not the one from Topeka, Kan., should have topped the 1954 decision on racial segregation in schools.
Mark Walsh, January 8, 2024
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3 min read
A student listens to instruction during an 8th grade science class at Aptos Middle School on January 27, 2020 in San Francisco.
A student listens to instruction during an 8th grade science class at Aptos Middle School on January 27, 2020 in San Francisco. Scholars and legal experts are still debating whether the Proposition 209 era in California offers lessons for the nation in the wake of the Supreme Court ending affirmative action in college admissions.
Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via AP
Equity & Diversity Will the Ban on Affirmative Action Hurt Diversity? Look to California
Proposition 209 prohibited the use of race in education. Its effects were debated before the U.S. Supreme Court this year.
Mark Walsh, December 4, 2023
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11 min read
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor listens as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pays tribute to O'Connor's advocacy work on behalf of civic education, impact on female judges and justice for women and girls worldwide at the Seneca Women Global Leadership Forum at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, on April 15, 2015 in Washington.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor listens to a tribute to her advocacy work on behalf of civics education and women's role in the legal profession at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, on April 15, 2015, in Washington.
Kevin Wolf/Invision for Seneca Women via AP Images
Law & Courts What Sandra Day O'Connor Did to Shape School Law and Civics Education
O'Connor wrote influential opinions on affirmative action, Title IX, and other education issues. Then she tirelessly worked on civics.
Mark Walsh, December 1, 2023
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10 min read
People protest outside of the Supreme Court in Washington on June 29, 2023. The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, declaring race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies.
Demonstrators outside of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 29, the day the court struck down affirmative action in college admissions. The Biden administration on Aug. 14 issued guidance on other ways colleges to promote racial diversity.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Law & Courts Biden Administration Outlines How Colleges Can Pursue Racial Diversity After Court Ruling
The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice say universities may partner with schools on outreach and recruitment of minority students.
Mark Walsh, August 14, 2023
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5 min read
Harry Briggs stands in front of the Scott's Branch School in Summerton, S.C., May 8, 1979. In 1950, Briggs filed a school desegregation lawsuit, seeking equal schools and pay for teachers. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that separate but equal schools were unconstitutional.
Harry Briggs stands in front of the Scott's Branch School in Summerton, S.C., May 8, 1979. In 1950, Briggs filed a school desegregation lawsuit, seeking equal schools and pay for teachers. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that separate but equal schools were unconstitutional.
Lou Krasky/AP
Law & Courts Should 'Brown v. Board of Education' Be Renamed? The Debate, Explained
Descendants contend the companion case Briggs v. Elliott was unfairly bumped from the top of the historic decision.
Mark Walsh, June 5, 2023
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11 min read
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