Education Law: A Problem-Based Approach covers both the standard education law topics and cutting-edge topics such as online student speech, discipline for off-campus behavior, cyber-bullying, physical restraints, protections for LGBT students, vaccination requirements, and charter school requirements. The book provides a guided, hands-on approach that includes activities that provide students with an opportunity to go outside of the text and gather information about how certain aspects of education law work in "the real world" and in their own states.
This innovative text starts with an introductory and foundational chapter and then proceeds to cover each topic through a problem-based approach. Each chapter provides problems with legal standards from statutes, regulations, and court decisions that allow students to apply the relevant law and focus on resolving real and relevant problems.
The fifth edition of the book includes a variety of updates throughout the book. Topics covered include:
· Foundational principles (including sources of law, the hierarchy of laws involved in education, and how state and federal law interact);
· School funding (focusing on New Hampshire's school funding litigation as an example of issues);
· Employment issues (including licensing, collective bargaining, removal, dismissal, non-renewal, due process, and free speech rights in employment, and there is CALI lesson that is aligned with the material on employee speech);
· Instruction and curricular issues (including ESSA requirements, English Language Learner (ELL) requirements, and academic freedom);
· Attendance, assignment, and placement (including compulsory attendance, considering race in school assignments, vaccination requirements, and home-schooling issues);
· School liability (including torts, Section 1983, Title IX, and online liability);
· Privacy rights and right to know (including FERPA);
· Student discipline (including corporal punishment, discipline for off-campus conduct, and zero tolerance policies);
· Student expression (updated to provide an even more comprehensive review of the requirements in this area, including online, off-campus speech under Mahanoy Area Sch. Dist. v. B.L., and a CALI lesson that is aligned with the material);
· Search, seizure, and interrogation (including requirements for school resource officers and the requirements for random searches without suspicion);
· Religion (including Establishment Clause, Free Exercise Clause, and Equal Access Act issues, updated to provide a comprehensive review of recent cases, including Kennedy v. Bremerton Sch. Dist., Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, Espinoza v. Montana Dep't of Revenue, and Carson v. Makin; and
· Special education requirements (including the special education process, updated to include FAPE requirements under Endrew F., discipline, and attorney's fees).
Scott Johnson is a Professor of Law at Concord Law School.
Sarah Redfield is Emerita Professor of Law at the University of New Hampshire School of Law.
