Download Teachers` and Students` Rights and Responsibilities

Teachers’ and Students’
Rights and Responsibilities
Chapter 10
Teachers’ Rights
• Licensing and Certification…a State
responsibility, but in the midst of change
because of NCLB: e.g. teacher license in K-5,
and “highly qualified” in every subject area in 6-8
• NBPTS establishing uniform standards for high
professional teacher competence, three step
process: initial licensure, Teacher’s certificate,
Advanced Teacher’s certificate
Contracts
• Early contracts were oral and then written lists of
duties and obligations for both in-school and outof-school behavior
• After WWII, teachers became more politically
active and NEA and AFT began to represent
teachers in contract negotiations in greater
numbers
• Exclusive right of the School Board to negotiate
contracts
• Binding agreements
Tenure
• The equivalent of civil service for teachers
• In the 1800s the spoils system led to many
unqualified people being hired by government
officials. In 1883, the first civil service act was
passed, setting the terms for hiring and
continued employment of government officials
• Protects good teachers from arbitrary and
unwarranted release, especially during a time of
teacher surplus
• Due process: embodied in 14th amendment,
requires written notice of the charges and the
right to an administrative hearing
Fitness of a Teacher
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Most often called in question:
Incompetence
Immorality
Insubordination
Neglect of duty and unprofessional
conduct
• Burden of proof is on administrators
Academic Freedom
• The right to pursue an argument, idea, or
discussion wherever it may lead (goes
back to Plato)
• More often associated with higher
education than P-12 schools
• Society tries to have control over P-12
aged students, and also the teachers of
these students
Academic Freedom
• Courts generally support teachers’
freedom (within limits) of curricular
materials and methodologies, but school
boards have the final responsibility over
curricular decisions
• Multicultural education may be challenged
in some school districts
Tort Liability
• The liability against a teacher is called a
tort… a tort is a civil wrong
• In loco parentis…legal right to stand in for
a parent in working with minors…so lots of
responsibilities to ensure student safety
• Negligence Tort…students are not
protected from harm
• Intentional Tort…full knowledge and
intention to harm a person
Teacher Equity Responsibility
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Racial integration
Gender equity
Elimination of sexual harassment
Language equity
Disability equity
Students’ Rights
• Many students’ rights gained during the
1960s as a part of the Civil Rights
Movements
• The right to attend school, freedom from
arbitrary suspension
• Freedom of speech and distribution of
literature…not coextensive with adults’
rights
• Dress and grooming
Students’ Rights
• Pregnancy and marriage
• Unreasonable search and seizure
• Student records…FERPA, Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act
• Religious rights…establishment clause
and free exercise clause