Public School Law: Teachers' and Students' Rights (7th Edition)

With this seventh edition of Public School Law: Teachers’ and Students’ Rights, renowned authors Martha M. McCarthy, Nelda H. Cambron-McCabe, Suzanne E. Eckes, have proven once again that their mainstay for school law can’t be touched by the competition. In a masterful blend of detailed treatment of landmark cases with a thorough discussion of the legal context, trends, and generalizations to guide all school personnel in their daily activities, the book addresses legal principles applicable to practitioners in a succinct but comprehensive manner. Information in this text will help alleviate concerns voiced by educators who either do not know the legal concepts that govern schools or feel that the scales of justice have been tipped against them. Primarily written for school administrators and teachers to learn the most important points of the cases and how the cases will impact their practices, this new edition covers a wider range of legal topics, takes a much more in-depth approach to discussing the cases presented, and cites many more current cases that are relevant to practitioners than any other school law textbook in comparison.

New to this edition, besides being thoroughly updated and revised throughout, are the most current new laws, policies, and judicial decisions; more than 400 new cases from previous editions, with all content as current and well-documented as of July, 2012; new information on cyber-bullying, sexting; legal controversies involving charter schools; and the Common Core State Standards Web sites with current data on a range of topics from voucher programs and home education to curriculum requirements; the latest on the American with Disabilities Act amendments of 2008, amendments to the regulations for Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and the Lilly Ledbetter Act; race-conscious student assignment plans, and the use of seclusion and restraints with students with disabilities with new information regarding guidelines from the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education.; and the most current legal information regarding protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students; permissible religious activities in public schools; and student searches, including strip searches and cell phone searches.

For law students, it is primarily written for teachers, school administrators, and other public school personnel taking a school law course at the graduate and master’s levels, there is not a greater, more comprehensive resource on the market today than Public School Law, Seventh Edition. 

Martha McCarthy isPresidential Professor at Loyola Marymount University and Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus at Indiana University where she teaches educational law and policy courses.  She has written numerous books and articles, and has made frequent presentations on various school law topics at educational leadership programs with faculty members.  She has served as President of the Education Law Association and the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), and Vice President for Division A of the American Educational Research Association. Among her accolades, she received the Roald Campbell Lifetime Achievement Award from UCEA.

Nelda Cambron-McCabe is Professor of Educational Leadership and Chair, Department of Educational Psychology at Miami University. Her teaching and research interests include public school law, leadership, and organizational learning. She has published extensively in these areas, including books and articles, as well as frequent presentations at conferences and to educators in the field. She has served as President of the Education Law Association and the American Education Finance Association, and has received a number of awards and honors for research and service contributions to education.

Suzanne Eckes is an associate professor at Indiana University where she teaches and researches about education law. A prolific author, she has written over 70 articles on school legal issues, is a co-author on Principals Teaching the Law (Corwin, 2010), and a  co-editor on the Principal's Legal Handbook (Education Law Association, in press) and School Discipline and Safety (Sage, in press). She has been invited to speak at several national and international venues about the legal rights of teachers and students, and has received several awards for her teaching and research accomplishments.