In "Acton," the Supreme Court upheld a local school board policy calling for the random, suspicionless drug testing of interscholastic student-athletes. Reviews the Court's holdings. Concludes that a drug-testing policy that is consistent with "Acton" and enjoys broad-based community support probably would be worth its expense.…

This study examined the experiences of secondary rural school students, teachers, and administrators to determine their perspectives on distance education. Discusses results of interviews, naturalistic observations, and document analysis that showed the importance of teacher characteristics; problems with a lack of socialization; and problems with…

The practice of identifying violence-prone students via checklists of personal characteristics and behaviors is accompanied by unanswered questions, recognized weaknesses, and serious implementation implications (for special services, suspensions and expulsions, and student rights). Stereotyping, discrimination, and wrongful identification of…

Discussion of privacy focuses on digital environments and a more inclusive understanding of privacy. Highlights include legal and policy conceptions; legislation protecting privacy; relevant Supreme Court cases; torts and privacy; European and other efforts; surveillance and social control; information entrepreneurialism; Jurgen Habermas; free…

Thirty-two middle class and 32 lower class southern Brazilian pre-adolescent (M=12.8 years) and adolescent (M=15.7 years) participants were individually interviewed regarding their perceptions of who (adolescent or parent) should determine the adolescent's actions in cases where the parents and adolescent disagree over the action choice.…

In this paper, we try to examine the classical sociological points of special education, especially the organizational form of special education, social background of students and the minority status of students. The material of the study was collected mostly during 2003 from one large city in Finland. This city has more than a 100-year-long…

The right to privacy is a firmly entrenched democratic principle that has been inferred in the U.S. Constitution and protected by the Fourteenth Amendment as a liberty of personal autonomy. It is the statutory right to privacy that has been most closely aligned with data protection as a form of self-protection. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission…

The Secretary of Education (Secretary) establishes requirements, definitions, and approval criteria for the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (Stabilization or SFSF) program. The Secretary may use one or more of these requirements, definitions, and approval criteria in awarding funds under this program in fiscal year (FY) 2010. These requirements,…

Education-agency and school staff are legally and ethically responsible for safeguarding student information. In addition to federal and state laws and regulations, education agencies need policies and procedures to guide their everyday information-maintenance operations. This document provides examples of policies and procedures as well as…

With each technological advancement--telephone, automobile, television, and modem--people gain convenience, efficiency, and speed; they lose immediacy, real as opposed to virtual community, and physicality. At a writer's computer conference, journal writers who have used a diary with a lock and key to keep writings private wonder how to reconcile…

The increasing use of computer technology for sending and receiving electronic mail messages not only signifies changes in how we communicate, but also signals changes in the skills, knowledge, and practices associated with communication by mail. Some of the characteristics of electronic mail (e-mail) are considered. E-mail refers to the capacity…

A series of four speeches on law-related topics comprise this volume. The text of each speech along with comments of invited respondents are included. The presentations include: "Justice and Sentencing" (Daniel Moylan); "Law: Obedience and Civil Disobedience" (Linda Irvin); "Liberty--The Right of Privacy" (Allan Powell); and "Punishment: The Death…

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) provides students and parents access to their school records and requires that parents and adult students be informed of their rights under the act. FERPA also bars the release of records to third parties without written consent except to school district employees possessing legitimate…

The press and public should have access to pretrial discovery documents in civil litigation when matters of public concern are at issue. Recently, the Supreme Court expanded the public's First Amendment right of access to criminal proceedings, and based on that, some lower courts have granted access to civil trials. In its decisions establishing…

The field methods for data collection in a research project on linguistic change and variation in the Philadelphia speech community, their origins and use, are described. Five working principles of the project are detailed: (1) there are no single style speakers; (2) styles can be ranged along a single dimension, according to the attention paid to…