"Believing in Public Education: A Demographic and State-level Analysis of Public Charter School and District Public School Enrollment Trends" is a new data analysis that examines enrollment trends during the last four school years (2019-2023). Over the last four school years (2019-20 to 2022-23), charter schools have gained more than…

Charter and cyber charter schools were legislatively permitted to operate as publicly funded educational institutions in Pennsylvania with the passage of Act 22 of 1997. Examining the tuition payments from traditional school districts funding charter schools and resulting economic, operational, and programmatic impacts on traditional K-12…

Analysis of two recent federal court cases in which principals violated student speech rights offers guidance to middle school administrators as they attempt to address student expression. Characteristics of a successful school from the Association for Middle Level Education provide a framework for analyzing these cases in order to prevent…

The need for superintendents to respond correctly to the myriad of legally charged situations is vital to the success of a school district. In small rural school districts, without the benefit of extensive financial resources or large administrative bureaucracies, many of the day-to-day legal challenges are handled solely by the superintendent of…

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the legal knowledge of Pennsylvania superintendents regarding summative teacher evaluation and to determine whether their knowledge level was adequate. Pennsylvania was selected for this state-wide study of superintendent's legal knowledge of teacher evaluation for two reasons. First, Pennsylvania…

The passage of Public Law 94-142 (the Education of All Handicapped Children Act) in 1975 established the rights of children with disabilities to a public school education in the least restrictive environment. Fifteen years later, it was amended and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (PL 101-476, 1990), still intended to…

In the seven years since former U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett helped develop "virtual charter schools" that provide educational programs to charter school students via the Internet (Kafer, 2003), the number of these schools has rapidly increased. At least 90 (or around 3%) of the almost 3,000 charter schools in operation in…

In the latest disclosure about the education department's public relations efforts, the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams acknowledged that he had accepted some $240,000 in federal money for ads on his syndicated television show and for other help in promoting the No Child Left Behind Act in various forums. Williams was a subcontractor…

Discusses a Pennsylvania case to determine whether a school district is liable for monetary damages involving a teacher's sexual abuse of a student. The case turns on the meaning of "appropriate person" under the U.S. Supreme Court's Title IX analysis. (PKP)

As a product of judicial rulings on the legality of acts of educational authorities and on the constitutionality of educational legislation, the common law authoritatively constrains the actions of school officials. Courts have recently delineated general boundaries in two important areas of school law: (1) Tort liability of school districts, and…

This comprehensive overview of state and federal legislation concerning gifted education demonstrates that the primary source of law relating to gifted students is at the state level. Several administrative appeal decisions have been made in Pennsylvania. Litigation to expand entitlement based on federal law has been less successful than…

This paper examines a seminal case in US education law regarding the separation of Church and State in the public schools. The issue decided was whether it is constitutional under American law for a school district to mandate reference to "intelligent design" (ID) as an alternative to the theory of evolution whilst instructing students…

This research study was designed to build grounded theory about the challenges faced by rural superintendents. Participating rural superintendents identified five areas that presented a challenge but that also applied to superintendents in other settings: school law, finance, personnel, government mandates, and district or board policies. Further,…

This report focuses on a study of law-related education in high school social studies programs in five states--California, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Teachers and administrators from 78 high schools were interviewed. Part 1 of the report explains law-related education and deals with respondents' reports of the status of…

This document presents Pennsylvania guidelines for interpreting child labor legislation. In Section I employment certification of minors under the child labor law, the school laws of Pennsylvania, and the federal law are discussed. In Section II the issuing officers responsible for issuing employment certificates are identified, procedures for…