Education Law
Education news, analysis, and opinion about important court cases dealing with education
Law & Courts
Supreme Court Rules Job Discrimination Law Shields LGBTQ Workers
The sweeping 6-3 civil rights ruling has implications for school districts as employers as well as for continuing legal battles over the rights of transgender students.
Law & Courts
Right-to-Education Ruling Jolts Education-Advocacy World
The decision by a federal appeals court recognizing the right to a basic minimum education may be felt far beyond the substandard Detroit schools underlying it, but hurdles could remain.
Privacy & Security
Opinion
How the Ed. Department Threw a Wrench in Student-Privacy Laws
An incoherent FERPA rule change is facing legal challenges. As it should, writes Frank D. LoMonte.
Law & Courts
The U.S. Supreme Court and Schools in 2018-19
A look at both the policy takeaways from the Supreme Court's 2018-19 session and a look ahead to a couple of major cases on the docket for the coming year, including Montana school choice/religious rights case and DACA.
Law & Courts
Trump Drops Fight to Add Citizenship Question to Census
The issue has been followed by education groups who feared the question would harm response rates and affect the allocation of federal school aid.
Law & Courts
In Campaign Season, a New Look at Busing
An exchange between two of the top-tier candidates for president highlighted how segregation in education could prove to be a potent issue in the Democratic Party's 2020 primary.
Law & Courts
Video
What Constitutional Rights Do Students Have?
When schools paddle students, censor student-newspaper articles, and write dress codes aimed at kids’ hairstyles, they risk undercutting the civic principles they’re supposed to be instilling. But courts have long recognized that the U.S. Constitution’s reach into the schoolhouse is limited, although the exact limits can be murky. Learn more about the legal context surrounding free-speech, search-and-seizure, due-process, and other constitutional rights when it comes to minor students in schools.
Equity & Diversity
K-12 Aid at Stake in Suit Over Census' Citizenship Question
Count educators as part of the population taking a keen interest in a major U.S. Supreme Court case about whether President Donald Trump's administration properly added a question about U.S. citizenship to the 2020 census.
Special Education
Feds Can't Delay Special Education Bias Rule, Judge Says
The Education Department made an "arbitrary and capricious" decision in delaying an Obama-era rule that would change the way states monitor how minority students are identified and served in special education, a federal judge rules.
Law & Courts
Landmark Case on Student Free Speech Still Resonates 50 Years Later
The Supreme Court’s 1969 ‘Tinker’ ruling in the case of students wearing black armbands remains a touchstone in the robust debate over the rights of free expression in public schools.
Law & Courts
Reading the Tea Leaves in Denial of Case Involving a Coach's On-Field Prayer
Though the Supreme Court refused this particular case, some see an opening for future challenges involving First Amendment issues and public employees.
School & District Management
School Named for Strom Thurmond Provokes Strong Feelings of Pride and Prejudice
In the South Carolina high school named for the state's best-known senator and segregationist, a majority of students are African-American.
Curriculum
Thousands of Copyrighted Works Will Now Be Freely Available to Teachers
Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and books by Edith Wharton, e.e. cummings, and Virginia Woolf have entered the public domain, almost 100 years after they were originally published.
Law & Courts
Is the Time Right to Make Education a Constitutional Right?
The odds may be long for a newly filed lawsuit that asserts students have a Constitutional right to civics learning, but some experts say the timing is spot on.
