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Education Law Research Guide

INTRODUCTION

This research guide includes resources that cover various areas of education law, including accountability, charter schools and voucher systems, higher education, special education, and discrimination.  The law library also has a research guide on Brown v. The Board of Education, May 17, 1954.

If you are researching for your seminar paper, our Research Strategies for Seminar Papers & Journal Notes guide will be very helpful to you. It will guide you through the different steps of research from choosing a topic to preemption check to focusing your research.

Members of the Georgetown University Community are welcome to request research help from a reference librarian over the phone 202-662-9140, by email [libref@law.georgetown.edu], by Live Help, or by appointment.

SECONDARY SOURCES

When you begin a research project, it is often helpful to have an overview of the topic, to familiarize yourself with the issues, and to learn what words are commonly used to describe issues and concepts within that field.  This background research will aid greatly when searching for more specific information later.  The following sources are good for background overview.

Treatises

  • Kern Alexander and M. David Alexander, The Law of Schools, Students and Teachers in a Nutshell (2009) [KF4119.3 .A43 2009].

  • Nathan L. Essex, School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders (4th ed. 2008) [KF4119 .E84 2008].

  • William A. Kaplin & Barbara A. Lee, The Law of Higher Education: a Comprehensive Guide to Legal Implications of Administrative Decision Making (2006) [KF4225 .K36 2006].

  • Steven G. Poskanzer, Higher Education Law: The Faculty (2002) [KF4225 .P67 2002]. Available online through eBrary.

  • James A. Rapp ed., Education Law (1984- ; loose-leaf for updating) [KF4119 .E275 1984]. Available online through Lexis.

  • Laura Rothstein & Scott F. Johnson, Special Education Law (2010) [KF4210 .R68 2010].

  • Stephen B. Thomas et al., Public School Law: Teachers' and Students' Rights (2009) [KF4119 .M38 2009].

Yearbooks

  • Education Law Association, The Yearbook of Education Law (annual publication, 1988-present) [KF4102.5 .Y4]. Available online through Wilson OmniFile.

  • National School Board Association, School Law in Review (annual publication, 1985-2004) [KF 4119 .A2 S38].

Other titles can be found by searching GULLiver (the Library Catalog) by keywords or subject heading. Some of the subject headings you can use are:

Current Awareness

The following newsletters are great sources for seminar paper topic ideas. Other good sources include Web sites of government agencies, research centers, school reform organizations, advocacy groups, and coalitions and associations.

  • The Chronicle of Higher Education (full access for Georgetown Law students, faculty & staff only).
    Provides online searchable full text access to the latest issues of the Chronicle and archives back to 1995. Also includes daily news, advice columns, current job listings and discussion forums. Coverage: 1995– present.

  • ECS e-Newsletters (Education Commission of the States)
    The Education Commission of the States publishes six newsletters covering different education-related topics. You can access the newsletters from the Web site or subscribe the newsletters and receive them by email. These six newsletters are:
    • ECS e-Clips gives you the day's top education news, as well as a link to Education Week's extensive daily news roundup. Current service only.
    • ECS e-Connection is a weekly e-mail publication with links to key education information. Current service only.
    • Citizenship Matters, from the National Center for Learning and Citizenship (NCLC) is a bimonthly newsletter that focuses on ECS' work in improving citizenship education in our nation's schools. Current service only.

  • Education Week (Editorial Projects in Education, EPE)
    EPE is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization based in Washington, D.C., with a mission to help raise the level of awareness and understanding among professionals and the public of important issues in American education. It covers local, state, and national news and issues from preschool through the 12th grade. Education Week is American education's newspaper of record. Web-only stories require online subscription. Core contents are available:
    • in print, the Library keeps issues of current six months on Reserve (ask at the Circulation Desk)
    • Westlaw: EDUWEEK
    • Lexis: Education Week

  • National School Boards Association Legal Clips via e-mail
    A free service providing subscribers with weekly updates on important and interesting school law issues. NSBA also has a blog called Board Buzz.

  • Tucker Arensberg's Education Law Reporter
    A Quarterly newsletter published by Tucker Arensberg Attorney in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh Tri-State Area School Study Council. (October 2003-present)

News publications are also great sources. Some news sources are:

  • ProQuest (Georgetown Law only) provides access to full-text or abstracts of newspaper or magazine articles.

  • Lexis: Transcripts provides access to full-text transcripts of TV programs such as the Charlie Rose Show, and TV/radio programs from ABC, Al-Jazeera, CBS News, CNBC, CNN, Fox News Network, MSNBC, National Public Radio, etc. Coverage varies by program.

  • Lexis's News & Business tab and Westlaw's Business & News folder include many different databases with different coverage.

Journal Databases/Indexes

The following sources are useful in conducting a preemption check as well as researching your papers.

Law Reviews and Journals

For recent articles, online sources are the most effective. You can use Lexis or Westlaw, for the full text of many (but NOT all) law journals, or you can use online indexes from the Library's homepage to get citations for articles in just about all legal journals.

  • Lexis and Westlaw
    Both Lexis and Westlaw include selected education law journals in full text. Generally, they don't have articles before 1985 or so, but coverage varies by journal.

    Advantages and Disadvantages: On the plus side, you can access Lexis or Westlaw from anywhere, and after you search, you have the full text of the articles right there. The main disadvantage is lack of coverage: you won't find articles more than 10 or 15 years old, and you won't be searching in ALL journals, just the ones available on Lexis and Westlaw.
  • Law Journal Indexes
  • Major Education Law Journals
Education Databases
  • ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) Database
    "ERIC is a national information system funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to provide access to education literature and resources."  The database contains more than 1 million abstracts of education-related documents and journal articles going back to 1966. The database includes articles, reports, papers, monographs on education topics and curricular items. Some 107,000 full-text non-journal documents are accessible electronically in PDF format. The Thesaurus can help you do a more precise search. Educational reports from ERIC received by GPO Access since October 2002 are available on GPO Access.
    ERIC is available:
  • ProQuest Education (Georgetown only)
    It indexes articles published in over 700 education journals, many articles are available full-text. 1988-present.
Social Sciences Journals
  • Academic Search Premier (Georgetown Law only) Provides full text for 3,467 publications covering academic areas of study including social sciences, humanities, education, and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies. A total of 4,425 titles are abstracted and indexed, of which 2,591 are peer-reviewed.

  • ProQuest Research Library (Georgetown Law only) Indexes and abstracts articles in more than 1800 general publications, with varying coverage dates, most beginning in the late 1980's. Also, complete articles for approximately 200 popular periodicals.

  • Social Sciences Full Text (Georgetown Law only) Indexes articles in all areas of the social sciences, from 350 English-language journals. Covers anthropology, ethnic studies, economics, environment, geography, health, law and criminology, public administration, political science, psychology, sociology, urban studies and women's studies. 1983 - present.

  • Sociological Abstracts (Georgetown Law only) A primary resource for accessing the latest research in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.

  • SSRN: Social Science Research Network (Georgetown Law only) includes 10 research networks. It is a good source for journal articles that have yet to be published and working papers. Many articles and papers are available for full-text download. The following networks are more relevant to this topic, but you can search across all networks.
How to Find Full-Text Articles

If you are using an index that includes only citations, you will need to get the full text of your articles. Here's how:

Search in the Library's catalog, GULLiver, under the title of the journal to see if we have it. We have almost all of the scholarly legal journals published. The current issues are at the Circulation Desk and the bound ones are on the 3rd Floor West. Pre-1980 volumes are on the 1st Floor.

The library also subscribes to many mega-databases which include full-text journal articles, some even in pdf format. You may use the E-Journal Finder to find electronic journals available either in various mega-databases or directly through different publishers. You can type the title of the journal (not the article) you wish to retrieve, click the resulting search results to connect to the electronic version of that journal and open the right issue to retrieve your article.

If you need an article from a journal that the Library doesn't have, contact the Reference Desk. We can help you find a library that does have it, where you can go and photocopy the article, or we can show you how to request the article on interlibrary loan (You can request interlibrary loans online.

Government/Think Tank Reports

  • GAO Reports
    The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the investigative arm of Congress. "Its mission is to support Congress in meeting its Constitutional responsibilities (e.g. oversight, policy, and funding decision) and to help improve the performance and accountability of the Federal Government for the American People." Most GAO reports are done at the request of members of Congress. They are also available on Westlaw: GAO-RPTS (1994-present).

  • PolicyFile (1990-) (Georgetown Law only) Indexes and abstracts public policy research and analyses originating from think tanks, university research programs, research organizations, and publishers (includes some GAO Reports, but not CRS Reports). Where available, access to home pages and full text are made available within individual abstracts.

  • PAIS International (1972-) (Georgetown Law only) Indexes public policy and public affairs literature.

  • CQ Researcher (Georgetown Law only) Weekly publication covers the most current and controversial issues of the day with complete summaries, insight into all sides of the issues, bibliographies and more .

  • Congressional Research Service Reports (CRS Reports) These are non-partisan and in-depth reports produced by the Congressional Research Service, the research arm of the Library of Congress, on a variety of topics for Congress. They are not widely available, but a few libraries have been collecting and making them accessible:

PRIMARY LEGAL SOURCES

Case Law

This section lists and describes case law sources specific to education law. For information on case law research more generally, see the Library's Case Law Research Tutorial.

Specialized Case Law Databases - Federal
  • Westlaw:
    • FED-CS (education law cases from all federal courts; 1789 - )
    • FED-SCT (education law cases from the U.S. Supreme Court; 1790 - )
    • FED-CTA (education law cases from the U.S. Courts of Appeal; 1891 - )
    • FED-DCT (education law cases from the U.S. District Courts; 1789 - )
  • Lexis:
Specialized Case Law Databases - State
  • Westlaw:
    • MED-CS (Mulistate Education - Cases)
  • Lexis:
    • State Education Law Cases (education law cases from states' appellate courts and selected cases from state trial and miscellaneous courts; coverage varies by court)
Specialized Case Law Reporter

West's Education Law Reporter [KF4110.A2 W47] (1982 - ).
Provides the full-text of selected federal and state cases on education issues. Also includes summaries of grants, awards and regulations from the U.S. Department of Education, as well as articles authored by education experts. Cases include headnotes, topics and key numbers.

Legislation

This section lists and describes statutory law sources specific to education law. For information on statutory research more generally, see the Library's Statutory Research Tutorial.

Major Federal Statutes

Below is a list of some of the major federal statutes related to education:

  • No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, P.L. 107-110, 115 Stat. 1425 (2001), which is mainly codified in Chapter 70 of Title 20, 20 U.S.C. § 6301 et seq. NCLB Act revamped the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, P.L. 89-10, incorporating new provisions in areas such as testing, accountability and parental choice.
  • McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, P.L. 100-77. Subtitle B of Title VII of the act covers education for homeless children and youth program, codified as amended in 42 U.S.C. §11431 et seq.
  • Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), P.L. 91-230, codified as amended at 20 U.S.C. §1400 et seq.
  • Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944 (G.I. Bill), P.L. 78-346, 58 Stat. 284 (June 22, 1944).
  • Higher Education Act of 1965, P.L. 89-329, 79 Stat. 1219 (November 8, 1965), codified as amended in 20 U.S.C. §1001 et seq.

Most of the education-related statutes are codified in Title 20 (Education) of the United States Code, some are codified in Title 42 (Public Health and Welfare). The Department of Education has a Policy page that includes legislation, regulations, guidance, and other policy documents for topics from adult education to vocational education.

United States Code

There are many different ways of accessing education statutes in the United States Code:

  • Official and annotated codes in print - Reading Room
  • Lexis: USCS (current federal statutes as they apper in the United States Code Service, including annotations)
  • Westlaw: FED-USCA (current federal statutes related to education, as they appear in the United States Code Annotated, including annotations)
  • Legal Information Institute: United States Code (federal statutes related to education, in a free web-based database; no annotations; may be less current than the versions available on Lexis and Westlaw)
Proposed Federal Legislation
Federal Legislative Histories

If you want to find the legislative intent of a piece of legislation, you will need to review some or all of the documents created during the process of enacting that piece of legislation. For many federal education laws, there are compiled legislative histories available in the Library.  These compilations usually include bills, Congressional Record debates, committee reports and hearings.  To find a compiled legislative history, try a keyword search in GULLiver, such as "education" and "legislative history".  For complete legislative history information, read our Legislative History Research Guide or work through our Legislative History Tutorial.  Good starting places for legislative history research include:

State Legislation
  • 50-State Information, Education Commission of the States
    Not only does this site provides direct links to state education statutes, state administrative code, state government and legislature Web sites, state education agencies; it also provides up-to-date information on state policy developments. The multi-state reports provide 50-state analysis on various education-related topics, such as No Child Left Behind and charter schools.

  • Westlaw: SURVEYS database provides 50 state surveys on a few education law topics. Sources: National Survey of State Laws, Multijurisdictional Survey, and West Surveys. Currency varies.

  • National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) [http://www.ncsl.org] is a bipartisan organization that serves the legislators and staffs of the nation's 50 states, its commonwealths and territories. The NCSL Web site provides research results on various public policy issues. Sometimes, NCSL provides 50-state analysis.

  • Subject Compilations of State Laws (1981-) [KF1 .F67; online through HeinOnline] is an annotated bibliography listing journal articles or other publications that survey state laws on various topics.

Regulations

Federal Regulations

The Department of Education promulgates most of the regulations implementing education policies and they are codified in Title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Regulations created by the different Department of Education offices are arranged under Subtitle B of Title 34 as follows:

  • Chapter I - Office for Civil Rights
  • Chapter II - Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
  • Chapter III - Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
  • Chapter IV - Office of Vocational and Adult Education
  • Chapter V - Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs
  • Chapter VI - Office of Postsecondary Education
  • Chapter VII - Office of Educational Research and Improvement

Where to find these regulations:

Code of Federal Regulations
Subject compilation of regulations promulgated by federal agencies, updated annually. The Code of Federal Regulations can be found in the following places:

  • Print CFR - Williams Reading Room
  • Lexis: Code of Federal Regulations (federal regulations related to education)
  • Westlaw: FED-CFR (federal regulations related to education)
  • GPO Access: CFR (PDF image of print; 1997-present)
  • GPO Access: e-CFR (text, not PDF; up-to-date to within 2 days)

Federal Register
Daily publications of the activities of federal agencies, proposed and final regulations must be published in the Federal Register. The Federal Register can be accessed at:

  • Current issues - On reserve at the Circulation Desk (older issues are on microfiche/microfilm in Media Services)
  • Lexis: FR-Federal Register (notices and regulations related to education)
  • Westlaw: FR (notices and regulations related to education)
  • GPO Access: Federal Register

For more information about researching federal regulations and administrative law decisions, see the Library's Administrative Law Research Tutorial.

STATISTICS

National Center for Education Statistics (U.S. Dept. of Education)

Office of Postsecondary Education (U.S. Dept. of Education)

  • Reports & Resources
    Reports from the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) include statistics related to various OPE programs, such as the Veterans' Upward Bound Program, the Student Support Services Program, and the Robert E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program.
  • Campus Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool
    Provides statistics on alleged criminal offenses reported to campus security authorities and/or local police agencies. Therefore, the data collected do not necessarily reflect prosecutions or convictions for crime. Allows users to generate cross-tabulations on various datapoints, or to download raw data. Excel and SPSS formats are provided.

U.S. Census Bureau

  • American FactFinder - Education
    Statistics gathered and organized by U.S. Census Bureau.
  • Educational Attainment
    "Educational Attainment data are collected annually in the Current Population Survey (CPS) and reported every March for the Nation, with limited detail for states and some metropolitan areas." (1999-present)
  • School Enrollment
    "School Enrollment data are collected annually in the October Current Population Survey." (1999-present)
  • Public Elementary-Secondary Education Finance Data
    "Education finance data include revenues, expenditures, debt, and assets (cash and security holdings) of elementary and secondary public school systems. Statistics cover all states, including the District of Columbia, and are available on an annual basis." (1992-present)

LexisNexis Statistical

Has two main components: "Find a Table" which provides the data, "Find a Publication" which provides summaries of statistical publications including:

  • the American Statistics Index (ASI) (1973- ) which covers sources from various government departments and agencies;
  • Index to International Statistics (IIS) (1983- ) which covers sources from various international and regional organizations;
  • Statistical Reference Index (SRI) (1980- ) which covers sources from different types of associations and organizations.
    If you find an abstract, check the Web to see if the document is available on the Web. Lauinger Library on Main Campus maintains a microfiche collection of the full text of documents.

AGENCIES & ORGANIZATIONS

Government Agencies

  • Education Commission of the States
    "The Education Commission of the States (ECS) is an interstate compact created in 1965 to improve public education by facilitating the exchange of information, ideas and experiences among state policymakers and education leaders." It is a non-profit and non-partisan organization representing 49 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia. Each member state or territory is represented by seven commissioners - the governor and six other individuals, typically legislators, chief state school officers, state and local school board members. The web site provides state profiles and 50-state comparisons on a wide range of education issues, from accountability to vouchers.

Research Centers

  • Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution
    The Law Library collects all Brookings Institution publications, check GULLiver for print versions. This Web site provides a subject arrangement of Brookings' publications on education. Topics included are: education equality, education finance, education research, education statistics, elementary and secondary education (K-12), higher education, school choice, teachers, testing and assessments.

  • Center For Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement
    Funded by the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education of the U.S. Department of Education, the program was "designed to increase student achievement by assisting public schools across the country with implementing comprehensive reforms that are grounded in scientifically based research and effective practices." Its contract ended September 30, 2009. The Center's web site includes a School Reform and Improvement Literature Database which contains over 4,000 abstracts, reports, and other information related to school reform and improvement.

  • Education Policy Center (The Urban Institute)
    Publications by the Education Policy Center in pdf and html formats are available on this Web site.

  • National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education (Teachers College, Columbia University)
    "The Center provides independent, non-partisan information on and analysis of privatization in education." Research publications by the Center are available in full-text.

  • Public Agenda
    A New York-based nonprofit and nonpartisan organization researching and compiling opinion surveys on a wide range of issues, including education.

School Reform Organizations

Advocacy Groups

Coalitions or Associations

  • American Association of School Administrators (AASA)

  • Council of the Great City Schools
    The Council "works to promote urban education through legislation, research, media relations, instruction, management, technology, and other special projects designed to improve the quality of urban education." Reports and data compiled by the Council are available on the web site.

  • National Association of College and University Attorneys
    The Web site provides legal information for college and university attorneys.

  • National Education Association
    NEA is a professional association representing 3.2 million members working at every level of education, from pre-school to university graduate programs. The web site provides general information about the association and information on recently proposed legislation and policies.

  • National School Boards Association (NSBA)
    The National School Boards Association is a not-for-profit Federation of state associations of school boards across the United States. Their mission is "to foster excellence and equity in public education through school board leadership. [They] achieve that mission by representing the school board perspective before federal government agencies and with national organizations that affect education, and by providing vital information and services to state associations of school boards and local school boards throughout the nation." The Web site is rich in contents including NSBA publications and research guides covering issues that are of concerns to the NSBA - advocacy & legislation, school governance, school board policies, education technology, and school law. Some contents are available only to members.

  • Public Education Network
    The Network is "a national association of local education funds (LEFs) and individuals working to advance public school reform in low-income communities across our country." The Web site provides access to its publications and links to other organizations with an interest in education-related issues.

OTHER WEB SITES

  • Brown v. Board of Education Digital Archive
    "contains documents and images which chronicle events surrounding this historically significant case up to the present."

  • Campus Legal Information Clearinghouse (The American Council of Education and the Catholic University of America)
    The web site provides summaries of federal laws related to higher education and examples of Innovative Compliance Practices from other schools.

  • U.S. Charter Schools
    Initially developed by individuals in the charter school movement from across the country with generous support of the US Department of Education, the site is currently supported by a consortium of organizations interested in providing accurate information and promising practices about and for charter schools.

  • Wrightslaw
    Created and maintained by an attorney who represents children with special needs, this web site is full of useful information, including legislation, court decisions and briefs related to special education.

Created 2006 (LT). Updated 11/2009 (SB).

Page last saved 24-Nov-2009