When contracting with private companies for support services, districts should define goals and requirements; develop requests for proposals; and create a team with legal, financial, user, and task-management expertise. Contracts should be in plain English, avoid open-ended lists, define terms, and specify service provision details. (MLH)

A recent United States Supreme Court ruling requires that school staff with contagious diseases be treated like other handicapped employees who may be "otherwise qualified" to continue work under reasonable accommodation. Compulsory education laws are facing court challenges in several states, as parents seek more flexibility in…

The privacy aspect of e-mail is a touchy subject. "Erased" computer files can easily be restored with simple software. Some public agencies are required to retain backup files on computer data and information. E-mail might also be subject to freedom-of-information access, depending how a "record" or "document" is defined. Also, e-mail exchanges…

Summarizes a variety of religious issues before United States courts, including two religion-in-the-schools cases in New Jersey and Georgia and two New York cases involving public assistance of private schools. Discusses a wrongful death lawsuit in Connecticut concerning a teenage suicide. (MLH)

Summarizes several U.S. Supreme Court actions, including decisions to review a North Dakota case concerning fees for rural bus students and a Florida case involving differential contributions and benefits for male and female employees. The Court refused to hear certain cases involving school consolidation (Kansas City), mainstreaming of retarded…

Reviews four recent court decisions affecting school law. A Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upheld Norfolk Schools' decision to abolish busing and reinstate neighborhood schools. The United States Supreme Court dismissed appeals to lower court decisions involving a minimum grade prerequisite, a teacher's privacy rights, and an "adult"…

Service learning is not immune from legal problems. In 1993, the third Circuit Court of Appeals quashed a lawsuit claiming a school's mandatory public-service requirement violated the 1st and 13th amendments. The most recent case was pursued against a New York district whose modest public-service requirement supposedly forced students into…

The United States Supreme Court upheld a California state law requiring employers to allow a pregnant woman up to four months of unpaid maternity leave if she claims pregnancy as a disability. A bill before Congress addresses parental leave and job protection for parents caring for a new baby or a sick child. (MLH)

Legal and practical considerations are discussed concerning whether school systems should participate in the nationwide class action suit against asbestos manufactureres or file suit on their own. Other topics discussed include grooming rules in sports, unnecessary litigation, and immunity from civil rights lawsuits for school officials. (TE)

The fictive account of a school board's problems with a new policy illustrates the need to involve all affected groups in the policy-making process. The "Sleepy Hollow Board of Education" early in the school year adopts a policy discontinuing social promotions of academically unqualified students. After a year of pressure and protest…

Garland Independent School District (Texas) has a clear-cut policy of free choice regarding union membership and has placed firm restrictions on union activities during shool hours. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld these restrictions but struck down a superintendent's claim that teachers' private communications violated district…

Notes current litigation influencing schools: upcoming Supreme Court cases, including one involving extension of exclusionary rule to school officials; an Oregon court decision holding athletic associations liable for injured student athletes; and an appeals court ruling against restricting handicapped students to normal-length school years. (JW)

Discusses "Mozert v. Hawkins County Public Schools" (Tennessee), a case involving a controversial reading textbook offending fundamentalist parents of six middle school children. The Court of Appeals reversed a district court ruling, holding that uniform use of the Holt textbook was not essential to the state's goals to teach reading.…

Discusses cases involving a nontenured high school coach's firing, state-mandated competency testing, and civil rights of public employees. (KS)

The U. S. Court of Appeals ruled that District of Columbia schools had not followed procedural requirements for the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. The Texas Supreme Court upheld the "no pass-no play" rule that requires students participating in extracurricular activities to meet academic criteria. (MLF)