After examining typical legal contexts for IR practice, this chapter offers the Practices, Policies, and Legal Boundaries (PPLB) framework for using laws as guidelines for policy and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight current U.S. Supreme Court precedents regarding public employee speech on matters of public concern, and how those precedents are being applied by lower federal courts to public school administrators. Surveying the current legal landscape reveals a heightened vulnerability for school administrators…

The third edition of the National Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Neglected or Delinquent Children and Youth's (NDTAC's) "Transition Toolkit" provides updated information on existing policies, practices, strategies, and resources for transition that build on field experience and research. The "Toolkit" offers…

Since 1966 when we began our careers in special education, we and others in our cohort have seen substantial changes in our discipline. In our personal experience, we had the opportunity to work together in situations that led us to focus on practices and procedures that produced better outcomes for our students, and better outcomes for students…

There is no evidence that physically restraining or putting children in unsupervised seclusion in the K-12 school system provides any educational or therapeutic benefit to a child. In fact, use of either seclusion or restraints in non-emergency situations poses significant physical and psychological danger to students. Yet the first round of data…

Nearly every legislative session in the last decade has changed state law in a way that requires school board members and superintendents to be more highly sensitized to conflict of interest issues, regardless of the size of their district. Prior state law simply forbade most opportunities for financial conflicts of interest, especially those…

Maintains that academia has not escaped the litigious nature of the current U.S. social climate. Cites pivotal U.S. Supreme Court cases on academic judgment and reviews lower court cases where students challenged their assigned grades. Provides suggestions for lessening the likelihood of litigation. (CFR)