Chapter 16: Legal Rights and Responsibilities of Staff and Students

Prepared by: MUSIMARTIN BIN SIMON MP101472 AMZAH BIN UMAR MP12

Legal Bases fo Schools

Element of the Family Right and Privacy Act

Due Process

Legal Rights and Responsibilities of Staff and Students

Common Tort Liability Setting First & Fourth Amendment

Issues of Equity

Common Tort Liability Setting

Tort: act or an omitted act, including breach of contract that result damage, injury, or loss to the injured person who they may seek relief by legal action School employees are liable for their failure to carry out prescribed duties or the failure to carry out these duties correctly. The best defense against lawsuits is precaution.

Common Tort
Pupils Injuries Physical Education, Field Trips, Others Extracurricular Prog Laboratorie s and Shops Corporal Punishme nt Suspension / Expulsion Detentio n Regulating Student Conduct

Playgrounds

Classroom

Pupils Injuries
Responsible to provide reasonable and prudent protection for their charges Legally liable in tort for injuries arising from their negligence Principal responsible taking all steps to promote well being for student and staffduty to plan and supervise that will minimize the possibility of injury Providing information to staff members about their legal responsibilities and developing a set of rules and regulation

Physical Education, Field Trips, and other Extracurricular Programs

Greater supervision is required Carefully developed and well understood written rules and regulation for the governance Notification and approval in advance by a parents or guardian

Laboratories and Shops

Teacher must adequately instruct student. If there is evidence that student has been permitted before being trained and told the consequences of improper usage, negligence will be difficult to disprove

Playgrounds

Three major responsibilities for principal

Proper rules of behavior, consistent with good safety practices must be implemented Adequate adult supervision should always be provided Arrange for frequent and regular inspection and a reporting system about any hazardous conditions

Classrooms
Principal should aware of a teachers absence from the classroom. Principal can be charged for negligence if any injury resulted while students were unsupervised

Regulating Student Conduct

Many kind of disciplinary action are available to school administrator and teachers when pupils violate school policies and rules Minor punishment: short term removal from the classroom, withholding certain privileges, detention after school, isolation from the rest of the class, being sent to the principals office. Suspension/Expulsion or Corporal Punishment (admin and teacher must take great care in the prescription)-

Corporal Punishment

Disciplinary action by the application of physical force. Oldest disciplinary tool, least efficacious Under in loco parentis the court continue to uphold the right of teachers and principals to use reasonable force to ensure proper conduct or to correct improper conduct. Corporal punishment should never be employed as a first line of punishment A written explanation must be sent to the parent, stating the reason for the punishment

Suspension/Expulsion

Suspension is a dismissal from the school for a specific, but relatively short, length of time Expulsion means permanent or long time dismissal from school (accomplished only by the board of education) In-School Suspension: Taking the student out of the regular classroom for a period of time and placing the student in another learning situation with supervision or in a designated special class

Detention
Principals and teachers do have the authority to temporarily detain student from participating in extracurricular activities, to keep children after school. False imprisonment may be claimed if wrongly detains or detains student for unreasonable amount of time

Issues of Equity

As a school principal they must know the laws, court decision and educational guidelines with respect to sex discrimination, desegregation, provision of the least restrictive educational environment for student with disabilities

Gender Discrimination
Occur most often in class assignment and admission to programs or schools Female have been excluded from certain specialized vocational and prevocational courses Title IX is bulwark against gender discrimination Title IX:

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in be denied the benefit of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance

Providing for the Disabled

Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975: least restrictive learning environment for children who disabled Certain right to education and fair treatment for children disabilities' (Individual with Disabilities Education Act 1990)

Right to free appropriate education Right to service in the least restrictive setting

cont.
Right to prior notice before any decision is made Right of parents to give consent before their child is evaluated Right to full due process Right to assignment and program placement without discrimination Right to be served in accordance with an individual program plan Right to be protected from harm Right to see all records and to contest them in a hearing

The Individual Education Plan

An IEP is designed to meet the unique educational needs of one child, who may have a disability Developed by a team, including the appropriate professional educator and the child parents. Must contains:
The childs current level performance A statement of goals and objectives The nature of the educational services provided The place and time the service will be provided The kind of teachers, diagnosticians and other professional who will be working whit

Individuals withDisabalities Education Act (IDEA)

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a United States federal law that governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education, and related services to children with disabilities

Employment Issues
School admin have the responsibility to practice fair employment policies and provide equal opportunity for job aspirants Principal and school staff should aware the federal and state laws and court decisions that regulate decision making about personnel selection and termination

American with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Protect the employment right of the disabled Guidelines apply to employment practices

All position are open to qualified applicants with disabilities Opening must be posted in place that can be reached Applicant may not be asked if they have a disability or how it was caused Medical info must be kept in separate file

cont
Employer must accommodate employees who are disabled Readers, interpreters and attendants should be provided Preemployment testing cannot discriminate againts person with sight, hearing or speaking limitation Implication: Essential job skills will need to be even more carefully established and demonstratively related to the task that need to be performed before an otherwise qualified person with disabilities is denied employment because of presumed inability to carry out job responsibilities.

Racial and Ethnic Discrimination

Separate but equal education was determined by Supreme Court to be illegal and de jure segregation was an improper use of local board of education responsibility Schools are now effectively desegregated because of migration and housing pattern

Youth in Poverty
The funding formula for Title 1 has been revised to target more dollars to schools with the highest concentration of poverty School can use Title 1 money to upgrade the entire schools educational program School may develop a program to include the entire school if 50% or more of its students com from low

Homeless Youth

The Mckinney Vento Homeless Assistance Act is a United States federal law that provides federal money for homeless shelter programs The policy of the congress
Equal access to the same free appropriate public education Homelessness is not sufficient reason to separate students for the mainstream school environment Have access to the education and other services needed

Privacy and Confidentiality of Student Records

Family Educational right and Privacy Act 1974:

students and parents are permitted to inspect and review record any dispute concerning the contents of a students educational record, due process must be provided the record may not be disclosed to outsiders except by the consent.

Title I

Title I (pronounced Title One) is the largest federal aid program for elementary, middle, and high schools. Through Title I, the Federal government gives money to school districts around the country based on the number of low-income families in each district. Each district uses its Title I money for extra educational services for children who are behind in school.

Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law that justified systems of segregation. Under this doctrine, services, facilities and public accommodations were allowed to be separated by race, on the condition that the quality of each group's public facilities was to remain equa