Landmark Legislation

By MSalado
  • Old Deluder Satan Act

    The law required every town with 50 or more families to hire and maintain a teacher to instruct all children in reading and writing.
  • Plessy v. Fergusen

    Plessy argued that the Separate Car Act denied him his rights under the 13th and 14th amendment. Plessy was found guilty and took his case to the Supreme Court which led to the “Separate but Equal” doctrine. This act allowed racial segregation.
  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Brown was denied when trying to enroll his daughter in a white school. He took this to court. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. The court ruled that the doctrine violated the 14th Amendment.
  • Cooper v. Aaron

    Cooper resist the Supreme Court's order to desegregate schools. States cannot nullify federal law.
  • Title IX

    Law passed that protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance.
  • Lau v. Nichols

    In San Francisco claimed that they were being denied equal protection by the school system’s failure to provide additional English language instruction.
  • Education of all Handicapped Children Act

    The Education of all Handicapped Children Act required all public schools accepting federal funds to provide equal access to education for children with physical and mental disabilities.
  • Plyer v. Doe

    Texas was prohibiting undocumented children from attending public school, demanding they pay a tuition. In the ruling the stated that Schools cannot prohibit undocumented children from public education or make them pay tuition.
  • New Jersey v. T.L.O.

    The Supreme Court established the standard of reasonableness for searches of students conducted by public school officials in a school environment.
  • Bethel School District #43 v. Fraser

    Students do not have a First Amendment right to make obscene speeches in school.
  • Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier

    Administrators may edit the content of school newspapers.
  • Freeman v. Pitts

    A court did not need to maintain control of a school district’s desegregation efforts in all areas if the district was compliant; it only needed to supervise the areas that had not yet been integrated.
  • Chipman v. Grant County School District

    Female high school students who were mothers were denied admission to theirs schools National Honors Society. The court ruled that the chapter had violated Title IX by discriminating against pregnant women.
  • Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe

    Students may not use a school's loudspeaker system to offer student-led, student-initiated prayer.
  • Zelma v. Simmons-Harris

    The constitutionality of an Ohio law providing vouchers to Cleveland students to attend the public or private, including parochial, schools of their choice.