Leadership Insider, May 2009, Additional Resources

Need to know: Legal literacy in school districts

Links to any documents identified in each part of the May 2009 issue of Leadership Insider and other resources related to that part are provided under each part’s heading. Additional information on these issues and on other organizations that address them also is collected below.

Past issues of Leadership Insider and the accompanying online resources for the topics addressed in those issues are here. The user-friendly link is http://www.nsba.org/leadershipinsider.

Introduction

Thomas Hutton: thutton@nsba.org
National School Boards Association

”The Legal List: Top 10 Issues for Public Schools”
This cover story by Del Stover and Glenn Cook in the February 2009 issue of the American School Board Journal and an accompanying article by Naomi Dillon on “Hiring an Attorney” presented the results of a survey of the NSBA Council of School Attorneys as to the most important legal issues confronting school districts today.

Cages of Their Own Design: Superintendents and the Law
Oct. 2008 draft paper by Frederick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute and Lance D. Fusarelli of North Carolina State University suggesting that school leaders pursuing reform efforts frequently fail to use even the legal authority that they enjoy.

North Carolina School Boards Association’s School Law Academy
Information on NCSBA’s educational program designed for school administrators and central office senior administrators, one annual training on student legal issues and one annual training on personnel legal issues.

State school boards association websites
Links to the websites of the state school schools associations, most of which include resources on school law.

The dangers of not knowing: Why your teachers should be legally literate

David Schimmel: schimmel@educ.umass.edu
Department of Educational Policy, Research, and Administration
University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Matthew Militello: matt_militello@ncsu.edu
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department
North Carolina State University

Bibliography for “Dangers of not knowing” article and sample lesson plan
Professors Schimmel and Militello provide this list of additional resources, as well as a prototype lesson plan on teacher liability for student injury for use by school principals with their teachers.

Education Law Association’s School Law Reporter and ELA Notes
Information on ELA’s monthly and quarterly newsletters for ELA members. Includes sample issue of each and links to many additional legal resources available from ELA.

National School Board Association’s Legal Clips
Self-subscription page for NSBA’s free weekly e-newsletter. Includes a sample issue and testimonials from readers.

National Association of Secondary School Principal’s A Legal Memorandum
Archives of past issues of NASSP newsletter on various legal topics.

National Association of Secondary School Principal’s “On-Line Law Guide”
Multimedia modules on legal topics developed by attorneys and education leadership professors featuring a series of 5-10 minute, narrated, self-advancing presentations, frequently asked questions, interactive self-tests to complete once you have finished a module, and web resources.

Free education law resources in the Internet age

Kevin Brady: kevin_brady@ncsu.edu
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department
North Carolina State University

Justin M. Bathon: justin.bathon@uky.edu
Department of Educational Leadership Studies
University of Kentucky

Free online resources on school law:

Findlaw
NSBA school law website pages
NSBA’s weekly Legal Clips e-newsletter
Google
Legal Information Institute: Cornell Law School’s legal information website includes the U.S. Code, Supreme Court decisions, decisions by many federal and state courts, pending legislation, etc.
Public.Resource.Org: Includes all U.S. Supreme Court decisions, federal circuit court decisions since 1950, and almost all of published cases found in the Federal Reporter second and third series.
AltLaw: This Internet legal search engine, a joint project of Columbia Law School’s Program on Law and Technology and the Silicon Flatirons Program at the University of Colorado Law School, provides full text search of the last few decades of both appellate and U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
PreCydent: The goal of this open access legal information search engine is to become comparable to current fee-based, commercial legal databases, such as Lexis-Nexis or Westlaw.
The School Law Blog: Blog maintained by Education Week reporter Mark Walsh and covers news and analysis on legal developments affecting schools, educators, and parents.
The Edjurist: Blog maintained by article co-author Justin Bathon that serves as an online resource for information and current events concerning laws and policies in public education and is encouraged to be a place to foster debate and growth in the educational law scholarly community.
Special Education Law Blog: Blog is maintained by Charles P. Fox, a Chicago, Illinois parent’s attorney and adjunct instructor at DePaul Law School's Special Education Clinic, who is also a parent of child with special needs.
Special Education Law Blog: Blog maintained by Jim Gerl, a West Virginia based attorney and due process hearing officer who consults with state departments of education and who also maintains the special education law Facebook group, which has nearly 200 members.
Wrightslaw Way: Blog maintained by special education parent’s advocates Pete and Pam Wright, who also are Adjunct Professors of Law at the William and Mary Law School.
Connecticut Education Law Blog: Blog about Connecticut school law maintained by the private school law firm of Berchem, Moses & Devlin, P.C.
Pennsylvania Education Law Blog: Blog about Pennsylvania school law maintained by the private school law firm of Fox Rothschild, LLP.
Texas Teacher Law: Blog maintained by Texas attorney Pamela Parker, who represents teachers.

A view from the silo: The future of educational leadership programs

Sarah E. Redfield: sarah.redfield@gmail.com
Franklin Pierce Law Center

Street Law Inc. Law School Diversity Pipeline program
Program at ten law schools to add career-focused components to their existing Street Law programs, where law students teach practical law to high school students. The goal is to enhance diversity in the legal profession by encouraging high school students of color to pursue higher education and legal careers.