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Post by shamrockpea on Mar 5, 2018 22:11:42 GMT
I am writing a paper for a School law class I am taking for my Administrator's credential. I have two co-principals that I have interviewed and I must say - things are tame! I am expected to write about an interview identifying legal issues the administrator faces regularly, how they deal with them effectively. Both say they deal little with legal issues. I would like to add some color or interest from people that have had to deal with issues. I think because we are in a bigger district, it is all handled by "downtown" once litigation happens, it is out of their hands.
Does anyone have any advice that I can share with a group of newbie administrators?
Have you had things happen that you learned a lesson from?
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Post by christine58 on Mar 5, 2018 22:17:28 GMT
Does anyone have any advice that I can share with a group of newbie administrators? Have you had things happen that you learned a lesson from? If you have a teachers' Union, I would talk to the president. I had many legal issues come up. OR I'd also go to your Human Resource person. They also deal with legal stuff more than principal. A principal will bounce it up the chain of command honestly. |
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Post by JustCallMeMommy on Mar 5, 2018 22:19:54 GMT
Are you really looking for instances where the district is regularly sued, or are you looking for instances where decisions are impacted by potential legal issues? For instance, many of the rules administrators enforce are due to potential legal issues - if a child gets hurt driving on a school trip, their parent is likely to sue, so we won't allow students to take their personal cars on a school trip. Nope, we won't make an exception because our lawyer/insurance company says not to. I think they probably deal with a lot of legal issues, but they aren't identified as legal issues.
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Post by librarylady on Mar 5, 2018 22:27:08 GMT
Any legal issue would be handled by the district's attorneys. Reword your question: Do you have problems that come before you that have the potential to be a legal issue?
Off hand, I can think of POTENTIAL legal issues:
discipline
clothing/hair length
assigned reading materials
book challenges in the school library
(inappropriate) communication between teacher and student
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AmeliaBloomer
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,842
Location: USA
Jun 26, 2014 5:01:45 GMT
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Post by AmeliaBloomer on Mar 5, 2018 22:28:49 GMT
Can you talk to a special ed administrator? TONS of legally-based and regulated stuff there.
Or a student services administrator (which could includes overseeing nurses and social workers)? Lots of sensitive stuff with them.
If it has to be a site-base administrator, they surely have experience with things like truancy... dealing with parental custody, including how they determine who can pick up the student and who gets phone calls and mailings...absence alerts/Amber Alerts...reporting abuse allegations or overseeing those who do...scads of privacy stuff like how they safeguard access to records or even what happens when teachers are overheard talking about a student or family...when to involve police in discipline, including student arrests...tech/internet access at school...social media abuses outside of school by students and teachers...bullying...transgender students...dispensing medication....criminal background checks...gun free zone...religious freedom...first amendment issues...protected classes...workmen's comp....FMLA...the RIF process...teacher negligence...student supervision as it relates to certified v. non-certified staff...teacher evaluation, discipline, remediation, and due process (some of that is contractural, but even the contractural stuff often involves legalities).
Even if each thing doesn't require a (billable!) phone call to a lawyer, there are so many policies that are based on law when developed. If your prof is defining the assignment as issues that eventually gets litigated, that's pretty narrow. Things very seldom get that far. If, instead, the people you interviewed are the ones interpreting narrowly, maybe they just need some everyday examples as a nudge.
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Post by myshelly on Mar 5, 2018 22:42:54 GMT
Can you talk to the person who is in charge of 504s/IEPs?
Has any parent ever felt their child's 504 was violated and contacted or threatened to contact the OCR?
Has any parent been denied a 504/IEP for their child and threatened to bring in a lawyer?
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