This is a new Education Week blog on legal issues in education. I have covered school law for the newspaper for more than 15 years. After a few years off the beat, I returned last spring, just in time for the U.S. Supreme Court to finish one of its most significant terms for K-12 education in a generation.
(See a summary of the cases from the 2006-07 term, which is embedded in this story about the decision in one of them, the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” student speech case.)
My plan for this blog is to be newsy, with lots of links to court decisions on matters of interest to educators, policymakers, lawyers who handle education cases, and parents. When appropriate, I’ll also try to offer analysis and insight.
A journalist visiting a few years back from The Times Educational Supplement, a British newspaper that is somewhat akin to Education Week, asked me why we had a school law beat. He was surprised when I told him that lawyers and judges can play such a significant role in the operation of U.S. public schools, and that the Supreme Court is often at the center of some of the most contentious education issues. For better or worse, that is how it is in this country.