Principals' knowledge of South Dakota school law

The primary purpose of the study was to assess the knowledge of school principals in regard to selected statutes, court cases, and administrative rules governing education in South Dakota. Secondary purposes were to examine principals' perceptions regarding South Dakota school law and to obtain data relative to principals' sources of legal information.; A two-part questionnaire addressed the study's objectives. The first part consisted of items requesting demographic information and principals' perceptions. The second part was a 40-item instrument developed for assessing knowledge of South Dakota school law. The questionnaire was mailed to 210 randomly selected South Dakota principals. Follow-up procedures resulted in the return of 199 questionnaires which was a response rate of 94.8 percent.; Principals' mean score on the 40-item assessment was 72.0 percent correct. As determined by a jury of experts, this overall mean represented a fair knowledge of South Dakota school law.; One-way analysis of variance procedures showed secondary principals significantly more knowledgeable than elementary principals. Principals who had completed one school law course were significantly more knowledgeable than those with no such course work. No significant differences based on educational level or years of administrative experience were found.; Over 96 percent of the principals perceived knowledge of state educational law to be important or extremely important in performance of their professional duties. State statutes, attorneys, and state administrative rules were perceived to be the most valuable sources of legal information regarding state educational law.; A majority of principals appeared not to have been exposed to state statutes and administrative rules governing education in college course work. Thirty-two percent of surveyed principals worked at schools which were without a volume of the state statutes governing education. Similarly, 42 percent of principals lacked immediate access to copies of the South Dakota administrative rules governing education.