EdAd 5914

Education Policy and the Law 3 credits Spring 2012 Instructor: Charles Rick Contact: crick9@msn.com or 218-780-0343

Welcome to Education Policy and the Law

For most of you this course will be your introduction to the legal concepts and political frameworks that govern the worlds of public and private education. As any law course should, we expect that it will challenge you both intellectually and ethically (and perhaps linguistically) and yet, unlike most law courses that we know of, we also expect that we will have a lot of fun along the way. Please note that this course will not teach you everything you need to know about school law, nor will it ensure that you stay out of legal trouble as a school administrator. Indeed, no law class ever could, because much of your legal savvy will emerge through the warm reality o practical administrative experience. Hopefully, however, this class will expose you to concepts that will help you as a professional educator and will familiarize you with the legal and ethical issues that accompany the process of educating children. We see this class as a joint venture in learning and understanding, and I encourage each of you to interact with your student peers and with us so that we may all learn from each other. There is a wealth of wisdom in the collective please help us bring it out.

Course Information
Introduction and Goals of the Course
Like other societal institutions, schools operate within a complex, intertwined web of case law, statutes, administrative regulations, and school district policies. Awareness of the laws, regulations, and policies that apply to the governance of schools is absolutely vital for educational leaders who wish to create quality educational experiences for students. Moreover, from a pragmatic standpoint, such knowledge also is necessary for educational leaders who wish to avoid legal and financial liability for the actions of themselves, their employees, and their students. The purpose of this course is to help future building-level educational leaders become acquainted with the legal issues that often confront students, teachers, and administrators. Furthermore, this course aims to help those future leaders acquire the knowledge necessary to act upon those issues in a professional, legal, and ethical manner.

Texts and other Course Materials

There is one primary text for this course: Essex, N. L. (2008). School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN 0-205-50816-2 The textbook is available at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities bookstore or at online sellers such as Amazon.com, BigWords.com, and VarsityBooks.com. Additional materials, such as class notes, edited legal cases, and supplemental readings, will be distributed in class and/or available for download at our class web site.

Expectations
Students in this course should possess a strong work ethic, a keen sense of intellectual curiosity, a receptiveness to new ideas, a willingness to take risks and to work with others, and an interest in benefiting school children. Students in this course also are expected to have both e-mail and internet access. Much of our work and our communication will be done electronically. Since much of this class will be online, a broadband internet connection is highly recommended. Students in courses offered by the Department of Educational Policy and Administration are expected to exhibit graduate-level writing skills and to comply with the requirements of the APA Manual for all written work unless notified otherwise by the instructor. For further information, please consult the following: American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Pages 397-410 of the APA Manual cover the basics of legal citation within the APA framework. Your written and oral communication always should be professional in style, appearance, and content. Avoid improprieties that detract from the message that you wish to send through your writing. Use good grammar, check your spelling, ensure that verbs match subjects, and avoid contractions and abbreviations. Use heading and subheadings to categorize and organize your writing and otherwise comply with the technical characteristics inherent to good writing (a good guideline is to approach every writing assignment as if you were submitting it to a school board or an organization from which you were requesting money). Please contact us if you need assistance meeting any of these expectations.

Grading and Assessment

Your grade in this course will be based on the following components, each of which is discussed further below: Reading, online participation and class discussion (50%) Reflective self-evaluation (20%) Final exam (30%)

In addition to assigning grades based on the components just listed, we reserve the right to adjust grades to the benefit of the students if the course grade distribution warrants such an adjustment. Reading, class and online participation (50%) Our course will be divided into 10 learning units. These units will consist of varied combinations of readings, class participation, narrated presentations, online discussions, and other activities. Each unit is worth 10% of your overall grade. Specific instructions for each unit will be posted on the course web site. We believe that our time together, whether in class or online, is very important. When we meet face-to-fact, please come to class on time, prepared to participate extensively. If an emergency arises that will prohibit your attendance, please contact Paula Forbes immediately so that we may discuss your situation. When were interacting online, please take that work seriously and be a good online contributor. By working together, we can greatly facilitate our own and others learning. Since our online discussion area is our primary place for interaction, you should plan to check in and participate regularly (i.e., every few days) It is OKAY to take a few days off for a family trip, vacation, etc. It is NOT OKAY to disappear for weeks at a time and then try and catch up in a mad rush at the end. The value of the course comes from the ongoing, interactive conversation with the material and others, not just satisfying posting requirements. Reflective self-evaluation (20%) At the end of the course you will be asked to write a reflective self-evaluation regarding your experiences in this course. Your self-evaluation should contain a minimum of four pages of typed text, not including a title page (if applicable). There is no maximum length for your self-evaluation it should be long enough to thoroughly and completely address the issues your have chosen to discuss. At the very least, this evaluation should include a discussion of how, as a result of this course, you have grown both intellectually and personally and of how your feel your preparation as an educational (or legal) leader has been enhanced. Your evaluation also should show evidence of reflection upon the topics we have covered and the information you have learned. Neither the format nor your approach to your reflective self-evaluation are proscribed, other than a request that you comply with the APA Manual for any references you cite. Creativity is both allowed and encouraged. Possible approaches to this assignment could include a simple, descriptive monograph; a question-and-answer format; a mock interview with yourself; a poem; a play; a web site; or any other format that you choose, as long as it satisfies the above requirements. We anticipate that for this assignment your probably will be writing in first-person voice. Questions and issues to address in your reflective statement could include, but are not limited to:

* How do you now think differently about school or law-related issues after this course? *How has this course increased your awareness and understanding of the various legal, educational, policy, and practice issues that we covered in class? *How does what you have learned in this class related to material from other courses, to your daily practice as an educator or attorney, to your current or future actions as a school administrator or lawyer, etc.? *How does what you have learned in this class influence or interact with your own personal leadership or legal philosophy? Regardless of the approach you take, for this assignment please remember that depth is preferable to breadth. Discussing a few issues thoroughly, with accompanying examples, is better than discussing many issues in a sort, superficial manner. No grade will be assigned for this self-evaluation other than to note your triumphant completion! Final Exam (30%) The final exam will require 2 hours for most students. It will be an open book and open internet exam. This means that you may use any printed source as a reference. It does not mean that you may: Discuss the questions or answers with anyone else including classmates, instructors, other lawyers, partners etc. (No one means no one!) Use printed reference material in your exam to answer the questions. In other words, you may not plagerize other work. You may cite cases or other references in support of your answers or arguments. For example, you may cite the Minnesota Pupil Fair Dismissal Act for the rule that students with disabilities may only be suspended for 10 school days for one offense.

Grading Policy
This class will comply with the University of Minnesota Uniform Grading and transcript Policy, which is available at: http://tinyurl.com/hjnvw Grades for this class are defined as follows and include the use of pluses and minuses: A Achievement that is outstanding relative to the level necessary to meet course requirements; B Achievement that is significantly above the level necessary to meet course requirements; C Achievement that meets the course requirements in every respect; D Achievement that is worthy of credit even though it fails to meet fully the course requirements; S Achievement that is satisfactory, which is equivalent to a C- or better (achievement required for an S is at the discretion of the instructor buy may be no lower than a C-);

F (or N) Represents failure (or no credit) and signifies that the work was either (1) completed but at a level or achievement that is not worthy of credit or (2) was not completed and there was o agreement between the instructor and the student that the student would be awarded an I (Incomplete). Note that academic dishonesty in any portion of the academic work for a course may be grounds for awarding a grade of F or N for the entire course; I Incomplete course grades may be assigned at the discretion of the instructor when , due to extraordinary circumstances (e.g., hospitalization), a student is prevented from completing the work of the course on time. Requires a written agreement between instructor and student. For undergraduate courses, one credit is defined as equivalent to an average of three hours of learning effort per week (over a full 15-week semester) necessary for an average student to achieve an average grade (i.e., a C) in the course. For example, a student taking a three-credit course that meets for three hours a week should expect to spend an additional six hours a week on coursework outside the classroom. Graduate students should expect to spend more time than undergraduate students on their coursework to receive an equivalent grade. You should expect to spend between 12 and 15 hours per week on class activities (reading, Power Point presentations, online discussions, etc.).

Submitting and Returning Assignments

All assignments will be submitted and returned via our course web site.

Make-Up Policy
Please contact us immediately if you will not be able to complete one or more assignments so that we can jointly devise a plan to help you successfully complete the course. Note that an incomplete requires a written agreement between the student and instructor(s). If you think you will need to take an Incomplete, please contact us immediately.

Learning Needs and Accommodations

If you are a student with special needs of some kind and you wish to make us aware of those needs, please let us know so that we can work together to address your needs. Helpful information also is available at the web site of the University of Minnesota Disability Services Office: http://ds.umn.edu

Academic Misconduct
Please understand that, as in the real world, your work always is expected to be your own and that honesty truly is the best policy. The official University of Minnesota student conduct policy (including the policy on scholastic dishonesty) is available at: http://www1.umn.edu/regents/policies/academic/Student_Conduct_Code.html

Helpful information also is available at the web site of the University of Minnesota Office for Student Academic Integrity: http://www1.umn.edu/oscai

Harassment and Classroom Conduct

Harassment of others, sexual or otherwise, will not be tolerated in any STLI courses. Sexual harassment by or toward a member of the university of Minnesota community is expressly prohibited by university policy. The official University of Minnesota sexual harassment policy is available at: http://www.umn.edu/usenate/scfa/sexualharassment.html See also the official University of Minnesota student conduct policy at: http://www1.umn.edu/regents/policies/academic/Student_Conduct_Code.html

Diversity
As the syllabus and course activities hopefully illustrate, this course is dedicated to honoring diversity and difference and is designed to foster critical thinking by students about accommodation of minority rights and viewpoints. Diversity issues include but are not limited to issues of age, creed, disability, ethnicity, family structure, gender, global perspectives, ideology, international background, language background, learning differences, marital status, multicultural perspectives, national origin, public assistance status, race religion, sex, sexual orientation, and/or veteran status.

Complaints
We encourage you to speak with me if, at any time, you feel uncomfortable with the course or with us as instructors. We believe that student concerns usually can be successfully addressed at the instructor level and promise to treat seriously any concerns that are expressed to us. We are confident that, together, we can devise a solution that well resolve your concerns. If you are uncomfortable approaching us with your concerns, or feel that your concern was not resolved successfully after speaking with me, please contact (in order) the following people: Dr. Diane J. Rauschenfels, Coordinator, Educational Administration Programs (218) 726-8547 Edue 177 412 Library Drive Duluth, MN 55812-3012 Another resource for students who have concerns about their courses or instructors is the University of Minnesota Student Dispute Resolution Center: http://www.umn.edu/sos The official University of Minnesota policy for student grievances is available at: http://tinyurl.com/q3hej Competencies

This course is designed to enable students to demonstrate competency in the following Core Leadership Competencies: A8: Understanding how education is impacted by local, state, national, and international events D1: Developing, adjusting, and implementing policy to meet local, state, and federal requirements and constitutional provisions, standards, and regulatory applications D2: Recognizing and applying standards of care involving civil and criminal liability for negligence, harassment, and intentional torts; D3: Demonstrating comprehensive law for regular, special and community education. E1: Exhibiting an understanding of school districts as a political system, including governance models; G9: Demonstrating the ability to identify and articulate critical community issues that may impact local education. H6: Demonstrating an understanding of alternative instructional designs, curriculum, behavior management, and assessment accommodations and modifications; K1: Demonstrating understanding of the role of education in a democratic society K3: Demonstrating the ability to balance complex community demands in the best interest of learners M1: Demonstrating the ability to develop and implement policies and procedures for safe and secure educational environments Superintendents Competencies: A2: Demonstrating knowledge of statutory regulations affecting School Board meetings, communications, procedures, and practices; A3: Demonstrating an understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the School Board B1: Demonstrating an understanding of the role the political process plays in public education and the connection between them B2: Demonstrating understanding of how to interact with local and state government. D1: Demonstrating knowledge of factors that affect school finance, including sources of revenue, expenditure classifications, generally acceptable accounting principles; and local, state, and federal finance calculations Principals Competencies: B4: Demonstrating the ability to develop and implement effective student discipline plans B6: Demonstrating the ability to meet the enrichment, remediation, and special education needs of all students.

Diversity
As the syllabus and course activities hopefully illustrate, this course is dedicated to honoring diversity and difference and is designed to foster critical thinking by students about accommodation of minority rights and viewpoints. Diversity issues include but are

not limited to issues of age, creed, disability, ethnicity, family structure, gender, global perspectives, ideology, international background, language background, learning differences, marital status, multicultural perspectives, national origin, public assistance status, race religion, sex, sexual orientation, and/or veteran status.

Course Timeline
This course will be organized into ten learning units. As we go through our learning units, be cognizant of two underlying ideas which serve as the foundation for all laws and public policies: fairness and balance. The online asynchronous nature of this course allows for some flexibility in regard to pacing and deadlines. You should do your very best, however, to adhere to the suggested course timeline below.

Unit Title (with textbook pages; other readings are online)

Class One

Introduce yourself Unit 1: The American Legal System (pp. 114) Unit 2: Due Process (pp. 83-92, 268-294, 326-381, and 76-83) Unit 3: Student Discipline Unit 4: Search and Seizure (pp. 62-71, 73-75, and 119-131) Unit 5: Student Speech and Expression (pp. 48-61, 72-73, and 96-97) Unit 6: Curriculum and Censorship (pp. 303-311, 321-326, and 335) Unit 7: Employee Speech and Expression (pp. 17-23) Unit 8: Data Practices Unit 9: Discrimination (pp. 241-267, 338349, and 93-95) Unit 10: Torts (pp. 169-216, 95-96, and 332-335)

Class Two

Class Three