AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CASE LAW PERTAINING TO THE SELECTION AND USE OF LIBRARY, TEXTUAL, AND SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS IN AMERICAN PUBLIC EDUCATION, KINDERGARTEN THROUGH TWELFTH GRADE

This research identifies and analyzes the case law related to library, textual, and supplementary materials used in American public education, kindergarten through twelfth grade, and determines the legal issues involved. Questions addressed include the authority of boards of education in selection and removal of each type of material, the rights of teachers, parents, and students to question selection and use of instructional materials, and the implications of these findings for educators and their governing boards.; Cases were identified principally through a search of the American Digest System. Relevant cases were analyzed to determine legal issues and facts and were organized by issue with discussion sequenced chronologically in each.; The four major issues of the study are freedoms of religion and speech, due process, and academic freedom. Eleven minor issues are covered: delegation of power; liability; rights of parents; obscenity; rights to learn, receive, hear and read; right to privacy; equal protection; and prior restraint.; Findings indicate that legal conflict over materials used in the public schools is increasing. Generally the courts have upheld the authority of boards of education in this facet of curriculum structuring if constitutional and statutory requirements are met. At the same time, the courts have determined that teachers, students, and parents have rights related to use of library, textual, and supplementary materials that must not be infringed by action of school authorities unless their responsibility for educating citizens makes infringement necessary. In cases where the necessity to limit individual rights has been upheld by the courts, the judiciary has generally demanded that limitation be restricted to the minimum necessitated by educational responsibility.; Study of the extant case law does have implication for boards of education in establishment and implementation of selection and removal processes. Future litigation related to instructional materials is likely to include clarification of the treatment of evolution and minorities in these mateials, the parameters of the right to receive, the difference between acts of selection and removal, and the variance in classroom and library contexts.