Practice ed Law Research Paper

Let's start with an interesting article in the NEA Today. Mary Ellen Flannery, "Address Unknown:
How do you assign homework to a kid without a home?" The article talks about homeless students, and, among other things, school districts and residency. It also mentions the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, known also as the "McKinney Act."

1. Let's Google the Act. We know that the word "Act" should indicate a federal statutory law. Turns out it was originally PL 100-77, and Reauthorized as part of NCLB, as PL107-110, 115 STAT 1989
2. Let's look in the index of our School Law textbook to find if the Act is mentioned and how it's been applied. Turns out, there's a section of the text devoted to homeless education. Fortunate you!
3. You wonder if there are other books that discuss Mckinney-Vento. So you click into the Reference Universe database and search the whole Reference Collection in one search!
   
4. Now that you have the law text and some examples, you should look at what kinds of matters related to homelessness may have been adjudicated by the NYSED Commissioner of Education. You also decide to search the Commissioner's Decisions for "residence"
5. Looks like the School Law textbook mentions some 8 NYCRR regulations and some NYS statutes. Good thing they're online!
   
6. However, because Mckinney-Vento is a federal law, you need to search for court cases, too. Lexis Nexis to the rescue! A Federal & State Cases search on "Mckinney act" should get us started. Too many results? Add words like Children or school or district. Or all of them.
7. That librarian is so cool! You think as you write the paper. Everyone should know a cool librarian.
   

Select cases to practice

• Forest Grove School dist v. T.A. (Special education)557 U.S. ___ (2009), 129 S.Ct. 2484
  
• Safford Unified School District v. Redding (Search & Seizure) 557 U.S. ___ (2009), 129 S.Ct. 2633
• Morse v. Frederick (Freedom of Speech) 551 U.S. 393

Russell v. Devon case found! (Or, You're Welcome, part II)

We discovered the opinion for Russell v. Men dwelling in Devon (1788, 2 TR 667) in John Henry Wigmore's Select cases on the Law of Torts (Northwestern, 1912). see pp. 837-839. Thanks, Google Book project!

You're welcome

NewYork (State). Task Force on School Violence. Safer Schools in the 21st century. Report from 1999. Lovingly preserved through a NYS Library digitization initiative.

Find Paper decisons in the Nassau Area

We used some library catalogs to locate if the older, paper versions of the Commissioner's Decisions AKA the Judicial Decisions of the Commissioner of Education AKA the Education Department Reports were available in the Nassau County Area.

We found them at (Be sure to call or email them before you visit!!!)

• Hempstead Public Library
• Suffolk Community College (yes, we know what county it's in)
• Nassau County Court Library [maybe; we're not sure] in Mineola
• Adelphi University Library
• Dowling College Library
• CW Post Library
• 
  

National Library Week presentation

If you plan to be in the Hudson Valley on the 15th, please consider attending our thought-provoking panel on school libraries. Or invite a library school student!

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You're invited to attend a SUNY New Paltz program celebrating National Library Week 2009:

"Teachers and School Librarians: Partnerships that Work"


School librarians are an extraordinary educational resource. Every day, they introduce students to libraries as important information resources, teach essential information seeking and evaluative skills, and prepare students for higher levels of research. When teachers and librarians work together, they ensure that learning doesn’t end when students leave the classroom.


How do teachers and librarians form working collaborations? What are the benefits and what are the obstacles? As an educator, how can you make these collaborations work? Join us as we welcome four educators from nearby schools who have created exceptional and thought-provoking partnerships.


Dale Thompson, an eighth grade English teacher and Joan Alley, school librarian are from Bailey Middle School in Kingston. Thompson and Alley have collaborated on an innovative Civil War learning unit with their classes. Alley has presented workshops on Big 6, an information and computer literacy program designed for children and teens.


Charlotte Adamis and Victoria Brooks are from Chambers Elementary School. Prior to becoming a librarian, Adamis worked in the arts and in journalism. Brooks is a New Paltz graduate with twenty-two years experience teaching first and second grade. Together, they will discuss how they collaborate on science lessons.


This program will take place on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 4:30pm at SUNY New Paltz, Lecture Center 102.

This event is free and open to the public.


For details please contact Stephan J. Macaluso at (845) 257-2699, macaluss@newpaltz.edu, or Amanda Merritt at (845) 257- 2335, merritta@newpaltz.edu.

This program is sponsored by Sojourner Truth Library, the SUNY New Paltz School of Education and the SUNY New Paltz Career Resource Center.

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Shepardizing....

...is available in case decisions in Lexis Nexis Academic. Find prior and subsequent history as well as how the decision was treated in cases and in secondary sources like reviews and law textbooks.

When I shepardize a case, I usually do so by clicking the "Next Steps" feature on the case display.

I forgot that Lexis Nexis does a pretty good job of explaining how to do these things. See here, for example.

If you're so inclined, LexisNexis also has a nifty guide to navigating the paper version of Shepard's (pdf)