EOL 469: Legal Basis of Educational Practice

David M. Stone, University Laboratory High School, Urbana, IL USA

Major Themes of Week One's Law-Based Readings

Coracle and Hendricks

Administrators with a good foundation in school law (tort liability, hiring and contracting, evaluation, student rights, seraph and seizure, special education) who remain current in those areas are going to significantly reduce district/school expenditures for attorney fees.

Administrators who represent the school well in initial interactions with the potential for litigation significantly reduce the likelihood of litigation occurring.

Bull and McCarthy

Two views of law - boundary setting and discretion to act based knowledge of law fundamentals

Boundary Setting	Discretion Based on Knowledge of Law
law is prescriptive, places limits law is static and fixed law restricts professional activities	laws change with times and are flexible this type of thinking allows for "preventive law" to become part of the school mindset laws facilitate professional activities

My Views of the Readings

Points of Agreement

Points of Disagreement

Agree with Corkhill and Hendricks in its entirety. Liked aspects of Bull and McCarthy's article - it's clearly written by people who love law for the sake of law itself (like Hart in "The Paper Chase"). Bullock and McCarthy's statements regarding fear of sanctions under mandates and the limitations they put on student opportunities. Bullock and McCarthy's statements regarding the quandary administrators encounter when they make changes (p. 627).

Bullock and McCarthy's statements on pages 620-621 - they seem to use excessive imagination in trying to support the major premise of the paper.

Final Thoughts - I'd love for the world to be as Bull and McCarthy make it out to be. They miss the reality mark by a longshot. The measures that are meant to protect us and students can be very limiting. There are times you have to go beyond what the school is constrained to do. All teachers know that, and most accept it.

Written 9/99. Transferred to WWW format 11/99.