Negligence and the Right to an Education

Chapter 4 is framed around the belief that administrators need to have a clear understanding of the history of public education from a legal perspective if they are to skillfully navigate the potential for professional liability and best serve their students. Explored within are themes essential to the evolution of students’ rights within the context of a right to education that the U.S. Supreme Court has never deemed “fundamental.” Outlined through the histories of landmark legal challenges is the struggle to identify the rights of students and parents in public education, with an emphasis on the early 1900s through to the present day. This chapter serves as an introduction to what the authors term “next-gen negligence.”