EdwardsRED 7003_8

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1 Emerging Issues in School Law: A White Paper for School Superintendents Ronshea Edwards School of. Education, Northcentral University ED-7003 Dr. Scott Ebbrecht June 11, 2023

2 Emerging Issues in School Law: A White Paper for School Superintendents In a world moving forward faster than ever and regressing all at the same time; with news that has to be verified and re-verified, due to instances of fake news. A country saddled with those voted in as leaders, refusing to actually lead, but instead blindly settling for following along party lines. With young adults refusing to leave home and start lives of their own until their mid to late thirties, it is hard to imagine where our future leaders will come from or what they will be charged with leading. However, as we seek to redefine what leadership looks like and what qualities and traits are necessary in our leaders, our society marches on with ever-increasing and more critical issues, in search of strong, wise, adaptive, and knowledgeable leaders. Our schools are but a microcosm of society and reflect many of the ills of society. Our leader’s preparedness to handle and mitigate many of those issues will determine the success of our schools, consequently our society. In spite of the many challenges, it is imperative that we start the process of training leaders at earlier ages. One survey suggested that many believe that training for leadership roles should have already begun by the age of 18. Fully 90% of respondents believed that it should begin before 18, while 50% believed that it should begin in the elementary school years and nearly 100% (97%) believed that it should definitely begin by the age of 21. (Velsor & Wright, 2012). In order for School Superintendents and Leadership of the future to be prepared, it is vital that we are not caught with our proverbial ‘drawers’ down and have plans in place that not only address issue that can be predicted but the unforeseen that can be just as devastating, i.e., Covid- 19. Unpredictable, with ‘side-effects that are seemingly intractable.

3 The issues that this author believes are prominent and needing the most immediate attention are: 1. School Safety 2. School Choice 3. LGBTQ+ Legal Matters 4. Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom 5. Student Performance/Testing While there are certainly other pressing issues, i.e., The Homeless Student Population, Drug/Alcohol Use, Continued Learning Loss (Covid-19), and Teacher Retention and Recruitment, I believe that these are the most urgent. Unfortunately, the most serious of these is where we will start: School Safety Recently, at a Middle School in Texas, a school is placed on lockdown, with students, staff, and faculty, moving quickly to safe spaces within the school, with a well-practiced precision and silence that belied the fear and concern on the minds of the Administrators and School Resource Officer. The threat: a 6 th grader had gotten into a fight and had lost badly. Instead of dealing with the embarrassment of the loss in a constructive and healthy way, the student ran from the building while telling everyone that he was coming back with a gun. Because the student could not be located by the Campus Police, the school was placed on lockdown. The recent observance of the one year “anniversary” of the Robb Elementary School Massacre, where a lone well-armed gunman, killed 19 school children and two teachers; injuring 17 physically and an untold number in the community and surrounding areas, psychologically,

4 took place in the town of Uvalde ("Uvalde school shooting," 2022). It is a tragedy still so very fresh on the minds of parents, teachers, Administrators, and even Senators, that any hint of a perceived threat increases the heart rate of those involved directly and indirectly. Since the mass shooting at Columbine in 1999, there have been 380 school shootings, with over 352,000 students affected. There were 46 in America alone, in 2022 ( Washington Post , n.d.). Police officials, parents, and community leaders have demanded that changes be made, safety measures be added and followed, laws be changed. Some measures have included adding full-time School Resource Officers for each campus, ensuring that all doors to schools be locked, at all times, more metal detectors, etc. As school shootings, as mass shootings, increase across the country, it is imperative that law makers, school boards, leaders, staff, and educators be prepared by developing laws, strategies, and policies that address this ever increasing and pervasive illness, even evil, that prompts an individual to take the lives of the most innocent among us. One of the first cases of school shootings, that raised awareness about the responsibility that school leadership, board members, and teachers have in maintaining school safety, is one that occurred in West Paducah, Kentucky, where 3 individuals were killed by a 14-year-old who had previously made unheeded threats about blowing up the school and shooting individuals, in class papers and assignments. (Essex, 2002). In this case, 45 defendants were named, with the plaintiffs insisting that those individuals had a responsibility to report the threats and that what they had done, rose to the level of negligence. Because of the continued rise in school violence, 46 mass shooting this so far this year, with its many corresponding issues, the legal complexities predictably, will only worsen and grow as well.

5 The National School Safety Center (NSSC) was established by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. It is the result of a partnership between the Department of Education and the Justice Department. Though it began as a government entity, it is now a fully-independent non-profit organization that partners with other organizations to effect school safety. Part of its Mission Statement says that it exists to “serve as an advocate for safe, secure, and peaceful schools worldwide.” It aids in the prevention of crime and violence in schools by providing resources, training, consultation, and information. The NSSC operates under the core belief that schools can choose to be safe places for learning or to once again, become safe places of learning by the procedures and policies that are in place, research, and training. One of the services that the NSSC offers is a School Safety Assessment that provides a comprehensive assessment of student and staff safety and the “security of the campus.” ("School safety site assessments," n.d.). Even though over 1,000 schools across the United States have taken the assessment, most states don’t require an annual assessment, as the State of California does. However, this assessment is a way that keeps schools updated on safety procedures, possible safety concerns on their own campuses, and reducing the liability of the school and staff, in the event of crime or violence on the campus. Another offering of the NSSC, is School Safety Leadership Training, where school site administrators and school resource officers are able to receive “theme-specific training.” These trainings are available at seminars, workshops and conferences and have been presented to well over 10,000 educators and officers. Some topics include: Bully prevention, Classroom Management, Hate Crime prevention, Diversity Issues, and Crime Response and Recovery.

6 As it becomes more apparent that school crime and violence are not going away anytime soon, assessments, training, exercises, and information are vital tools necessary to ensure that our schools are safe and secure places of learning. School Choice In addition to school safety, the controversial issue of school choice has become prominent in politics as well as district boardrooms and is destined to only grow over the next ten years. It is another pressing threat to our current system of public education, with the advent of new laws regarding school choice, which also includes public charter schools, as well as private school vouchers. Although school choice ideas, also referred to as school vouchers, is an idea that has been floated around since 1955, with advocates explaining that it provides parents with choices about how and where their students receive their education IF the school nearest is incapable of providing an effective education that best suits their learning needs. This would include public and private schools. In some states, the funds used are placed in an account that follows the child. At the time of the writing of this paper, 32 states have some form of school voucher or school choice. In our country, students most often attend the school closest to their homes. Those who are against school choice complain that those vouchers go to private schools that retain the right to reject applicants based on a number of factors that include: disability, LGBTQ+ status, proficiency in the English language, and other reasons. They cite that public schools cannot legally reject those students and therefore, an unfair system is created. Part of the argument for school choice/school vouchers is that it will force public schools to improve – unlikely, because the “best and brightest” are often the ones who leave for private schools and per child spending in public schools often is stagnant as a result of school vouchers. In fact, in

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