Education Law

Education news, analysis, and opinion about important court cases dealing with education
High school English teacher Puja Clifford sits below signs posted on a wall in her classroom at San Francisco International High School in San Francisco on April 19, 2016. The school accommodated migrant students by rewriting young-adult novels at a basic level to spark the newcomers' interest in reading.
High school English teacher Puja Clifford sits below signs posted on a wall in her classroom at San Francisco International High School in San Francisco on April 19, 2016. English learner education, including for migrant students, has evolved over the last 50 days after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case.
Jeff Chiu/AP
English-Language Learners Timeline: The U.S Supreme Court Case That Established English Learners' Rights
Fifty years ago the landmark Lau v. Nichols case set the stage for federal English-learner policy.
Ileana Najarro, January 19, 2024
4 min read
High school teacher Tara Hobson talks with a student in the school cafeteria at San Francisco International High School in San Francisco on April 19, 2016. Some districts have gone to extraordinary lengths to accommodate migrant students, who often come to join relatives, sometimes escaping criminal gangs or extreme poverty. San Francisco International High School rewrote young-adult novels at a basic level to spark the newcomers' interest in reading.
High school teacher Tara Hobson talks with a student in the school cafeteria at San Francisco International High School in San Francisco on April 19, 2016. The quality of education for English learners, including migrant students in San Francisco, has evolved over the last years in part due to landmark civil rights Supreme Court decision.
Jeff Chiu/AP
English-Language Learners How a 1974 U.S. Supreme Court Case Still Influences English-Learner Education
Fifty years ago Lau v. Nichols required schools to provide language support to English learners to ensure access to public education.
Ileana Najarro, January 19, 2024
7 min read
Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court William O. Douglas is shown in an undated photo.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, shown in an undated photo, wrote the opinion in <i>Lau</i> v. <i>Nichols</i>, the 1974 decision holding that the San Francisco school system had denied Chinese-speaking schoolchildren a meaningful opportunity to participate in their education.
AP
Law & Courts In 1974, the Supreme Court Recognized English Learners' Rights. The Story Behind That Case
The Lau v. Nichols ruling said students have a right to a "meaningful opportunity" to participate in school, but its legacy is complex.
Mark Walsh, January 19, 2024
12 min read
Linda Brown Smith stands in front of the Sumner School in Topeka, Kan., on May 8, 1964. The refusal of the public school to admit Brown in 1951, then nine years old, because she is black, led to the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the "separate but equal" clause and mandated that schools nationwide must be desegregated.
Linda Brown Smith stands in front of the Sumner School in Topeka, Kan., in 1964, a segregated white school where she had been denied enrollment in 1951, leading to the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down the "separate but equal" doctrine in the case that bears her family name, <i>Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.</i> The high court on Jan. 8 turned away an effort by descendants of the litigants in a companion desegregation case from South Carolina to rename the historic decision for their case, <i>Briggs</i> v. <i>Elliott</i>.
AP
Law & Courts U.S. Supreme Court Declines Bid to Rename 'Brown v. Board of Education'
Descendants argued that their case, not the one from Topeka, Kan., should have topped the 1954 decision on racial segregation in schools.
Mark Walsh, January 8, 2024
3 min read
A student listens to instruction during an 8th grade science class at Aptos Middle School on January 27, 2020 in San Francisco.
A student listens to instruction during an 8th grade science class at Aptos Middle School on January 27, 2020 in San Francisco. Scholars and legal experts are still debating whether the Proposition 209 era in California offers lessons for the nation in the wake of the Supreme Court ending affirmative action in college admissions.
Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via AP
Equity & Diversity Will the Ban on Affirmative Action Hurt Diversity? Look to California
Proposition 209 prohibited the use of race in education. Its effects were debated before the U.S. Supreme Court this year.
Mark Walsh, December 4, 2023
11 min read
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor listens as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg pays tribute to O'Connor's advocacy work on behalf of civic education, impact on female judges and justice for women and girls worldwide at the Seneca Women Global Leadership Forum at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, on April 15, 2015 in Washington.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor listens to a tribute to her advocacy work on behalf of civics education and women's role in the legal profession at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, on April 15, 2015, in Washington.
Kevin Wolf/Invision for Seneca Women via AP Images
Law & Courts What Sandra Day O'Connor Did to Shape School Law and Civics Education
O'Connor wrote influential opinions on affirmative action, Title IX, and other education issues. Then she tirelessly worked on civics.
Mark Walsh, December 1, 2023
10 min read
People protest outside of the Supreme Court in Washington on June 29, 2023. The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, declaring race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies.
Demonstrators outside of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 29, the day the court struck down affirmative action in college admissions. The Biden administration on Aug. 14 issued guidance on other ways colleges to promote racial diversity.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Law & Courts Biden Administration Outlines How Colleges Can Pursue Racial Diversity After Court Ruling
The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice say universities may partner with schools on outreach and recruitment of minority students.
Mark Walsh, August 14, 2023
5 min read
Harry Briggs stands in front of the Scott's Branch School in Summerton, S.C., May 8, 1979. In 1950, Briggs filed a school desegregation lawsuit, seeking equal schools and pay for teachers. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that separate but equal schools were unconstitutional.
Harry Briggs stands in front of the Scott's Branch School in Summerton, S.C., May 8, 1979. In 1950, Briggs filed a school desegregation lawsuit, seeking equal schools and pay for teachers. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that separate but equal schools were unconstitutional.
Lou Krasky/AP
Law & Courts Should 'Brown v. Board of Education' Be Renamed? The Debate, Explained
Descendants contend the companion case Briggs v. Elliott was unfairly bumped from the top of the historic decision.
Mark Walsh, June 5, 2023
11 min read
Justice John Paul Stevens looks over some legal material on Jan. 12, 1976 in Washington, in his chambers prior to joining his colleagues for his first working session on the Supreme Court bench.
Justice John Paul Stevens looks over some legal material on Jan. 12, 1976, in his chambers before joining his colleagues for his first working session on the U.S. Supreme Court bench.
Bob Daugherty/AP
Law & Courts Justice's Files Offer Insights Into Student Prayer and Other Supreme Court Education Cases
The new trove of John Paul Stevens' papers reveals internal debates over football game prayer, desegregation, Title IX, and drug testing.
Mark Walsh, May 12, 2023
14 min read
David Sciarra, executive director of the Newark-based Education Law Center, an advocacy group for children in low-income cities, looks at paperwork during a hearing in a school funding case before the New Jersey Supreme Court in Trenton, Wednesday, April 20, 2011.
David Sciarra, executive director of the Newark-based Education Law Center, an advocacy group for children in low-income cities, looks at paperwork during a hearing in a school funding case before the New Jersey Supreme Court in Trenton, Wednesday, April 20, 2011.
John O'Boyle/AP/Pool
Education Funding Education Equity Expert: 'We've Gotta Give Up the Notion of Local Control'
David Sciarra, stepping down as head of the Education Law Center, says states have been let off the hook in the push for education equity.
Mark Lieberman, January 23, 2023
8 min read
Miguel Perez stands outside the Supreme Court after arguments in the case of Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools on Jan. 18, 2023 in Washington, D.C.
Miguel Perez, right, along with lawyer Roman Martinez, stands outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Wednesday after arguments in his case against his former school district in Sturgis, Mich.
Mark Walsh/Education Week
Special Education Supreme Court Seems in Favor of Deaf Student's Right to Sue School District Under the ADA
Miguel Luna Perez was there as the justices weighed issues in his case over his district allegedly failing to provide trained interpreters.
Mark Walsh, January 18, 2023
7 min read
Miguel Perez
Miguel Luna Perez in a 2016 yearbook photo as a senior at Sturgis High School in Michigan. Luna Perez, who is deaf, went on to the Michigan School for the Deaf in a settlement with his district but is seeking to sue under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 for the district's alleged failures to provide him adequate assistance to communicate.
Photo courtesy of Luna Perez family
Special Education A Deaf Student Says His School District Failed Him. The Supreme Court Will Decide
Miguel Luna Perez received inadequate assistance for 12 years, his suit says. The high court will decide if he can pursue money damages.
Mark Walsh, January 17, 2023
10 min read
Image of columns.
E+
Law & Courts The 8 Most Consequential Developments in Education Law in 2022
The list includes major decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court, a transition on the high court, and several lower court decisions.
Mark Walsh, December 22, 2022
6 min read
Members of the NAACP Youth and College division rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court as justices heard oral arguments on two cases on whether colleges and universities can continue to consider race as a factor in admissions decisions Oct. 31, 2022.
Members of the NAACP Youth and College division rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court as justices hear oral arguments on whether colleges and universities can continue to consider race as a factor in admissions.
Francis Chung/E&E News/POLITICO via AP Images
Law & Courts As a Skeptical Supreme Court Weighs Race in College Admissions, 'Brown' Looms Large
The cases heard Monday involve Harvard and the University of North Carolina, but a decision could be felt in K-12 education.
Mark Walsh, October 31, 2022
8 min read