School Law

• Semester: Spring 2024
• Course ID: 296W
• Credit Hours: 2
• Unique: 28704

Description

Taught by Joy Baskin.

This two credit hour course provides an overview of practical school law (Kindergarten-Grade 12) with a focus on school district policy and governance, student and employee rights, and current issues facing public schools. Taught by a practicing school attorney, the course has no formal prerequisites, but will build on principles of federal civil procedure and constitutional law. School law cases frequently rely on these principles as courts strike a balance between the federal and state policy priorities, civil rights, and personal liberties colliding dailing in our public schools. Students will read leading education-related precedents from the U.S. Supreme Court and federal circuit courts, focusing on a different topic each week. At the start of each class session, a subset of students will prepare a briefing and lead the class in discussion of an assigned current event related to the week's topic. Our class discussions will most certainly be "ripped from the headlines." Grading will be a mix of class participation, current event briefings (written and oral), and a short, predictable traditional final exam.