Several recent court decisions provide ammunition for fighting over-identification of students who have impairments (like Attention Deficit Disorder) but who fail to meet the remaining eligibility requirements under Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. Distinguishing between Section 504 and IDEA requirements is crucial. (MLH)

In the spring 1995 "JLE" issue, Bruce Meredith and Julie Underwood posited that regular and special education have developed fundamentally different paradigms that hinder cooperation. James Tucker and Jeffrey Champagne responded that regular/special education's conflict over resources is decreasing. Thomas Kuhn would argue that…

Superintendent dismissal cases may be grouped into two major categories (nonrenewals and terminations) that can be divided into three levels: cases based primarily on the contract, on legislation, or on constitutional rights. Superintendents have been much more successful in challenging terminations than nonrenewals. Numerous issues and cases are…

The Knox and Bown decisions, involving school personnel's defiance of school prayer/moment-of-silence directives, strongly suggest that principals and their faculty members avoid taking the law into their own hands. Although an up-to-date knowledge of school law is prudent, job security requires educators to follow the advice of those legally…

Removal of school library books is again an issue in the courts. In a 1993 Kansas City case involving the superintendent's removal of "Annie on My Mind" from several school libraries, the federal court found that school officials' motivation violated the First Amendment. Administrators must resist the temptation to quell controversy by…

Summarizes a complex sex abuse case in a Texas district that turned on a teacher's failure to report a coach's misdeeds to the proper authorities. The appeals court, which found for the teacher, concluded that the missing ingredient was control. The child-abuse reporting statute did not empower a teacher with legal control over the coach's…

In reversing an expulsion order for a high-school student suffering from (undiagnosed) ADD, a federal district court judge has limited schools' ability to punish students with disabilities for serious offenses like vandalism. Nondisabled culprits escaped expulsion by withdrawing from school. All three boys were criminally prosecuted. (MLH)

Describes four legally sensitive scenarios involving student access to the Internet and recommends appropriate strategies to assist principals in reducing exposure to legal action. (PKP)

Educators who are also members of the bar offer advice to administrators on how to testify in court in school-related cases. (MJL)

An annotated outline provides recent case law in special education since the last update in volume 56 of this journal. Based on the 1990 amendments to the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA), references are in the form of the acronym for its new title, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). (MLF)

Child abuse is an issue of growing public concern. Seven questions and answers are presented pertaining to the legal risks and responsibilities of school personnel in reporting cases of child abuse. (TE)

Supreme Court has delineated three-step test to First Amendment cases brought by public employees, including tenured and nontenured teachers' academic freedom cases. Is teacher's conduct "protected expression" that concerns public issue without unduly rocking boat? If so, is protected expression the motivation behind district's adverse…

Recounts the case of Lauren, a moderately disabled student suspended for disruptive, aggressive behavior before the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was amended. The Seventh Court of Appeals upheld the suspension. The majority of such cases have gone against districts, reflecting a relatively high judicial standard of dangerous…

This review of case law on aversive interventions for students with disabilities identifies legal boundaries and protections for students in five categories: electric shock, noxious substances, corporal punishment, restraints, and timeout. It finds that, despite the emergence of positive interventions, qualified support for aversive interventions…

Although disabled students in two major cases have won inclusionary placement in regular classes, numerous other "full inclusion" cases recently were decided in school districts' favor. This article provides a recent illustrative case (a disruptive student with ADHD and Tourette Syndrome) and a question/answer discussion about…