- A new study from the University of California concludes that increased school safety and school connectedness are linked to greater achievement in school and lower rates of truancy, particularly in high-poverty schools.
- In Mississippi, the Tupelo School District’s 18 school security officers will start carrying pepper spray when classes resume in the fall. All of the officers, who are state-certified employees at the schools, have attended training to understand the chemical’s effect.
- The Supreme Court of Nevada ruled that school officials cannot condition a previously disruptive student’s enrollment in the school district on that student’s waiver of his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
- The Court of Appeals of Kentucky has clarified when schools are liable for unsafe conditions. The “special relationship” formed between a school district and its students imposes an affirmative duty on the district, its faculty, and its administrators to take all reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable harm to its students. Educators are not entitled to qualified official immunity for negligent performance of this duty.