This resource is for those who serve, or aspire to serve, as members of local boards
of education in Georgia, their superintendents of schools and the thousands of other
professional educators who administer the day-to-day operation of public schools
in our state. For over 20 years, we have been representing public school systems
in this state and we believe there is no higher calling in public service than being
elected to govern a public school system or being hired to administer a public school
system or a school. The governance of public schools is extraordinarily complex
and, unfortunately, the burgeoning number of legal issues facing those who govern
the public schools increases this complexity. The volume of legislation adopted
by the Congress and the General Assembly of Georgia has dramatically increased in
the last 20 to 25 years, producing, in turn, more federal regulations and state
rules defining and implementing these new laws. Federal courts in recent years have
interpreted certain provisions of the United States Constitution to make them applicable
to the public school environment. Parents, students, taxpayers and citizens are
more willing to resort to the courts and other legal avenues to seek redress of
their complaints and grievances. As a result, almost every decision made by a local
board or school administrator has some legal implication.
School law involves almost every area of the practice of law. In many communities,
the local school district employs the most people, operates the largest food service
operation and transportation service and manages the largest budget of any business
in the district. The structure of local school districts and their governing bodies,
the rights of students, employees and citizens, the budget making and contracting
powers of the district and the day-to-day issues involved in disciplining students,
evaluating employees and dealing with other local and state governmental entities
all are included in the broad scope of what is known as school law.
We have attempted in GSBA eLaw to present the fundamentals of Georgia school
law in nontechnical language for use by board members and professional educators
as a reference tool. GSBA eLaw is an evolutionary outgrowth of our popular printed
book, “A Guide to School Law in Georgia†(which updated the Georgia School Boards
Association’s Legal Reference Manual and some of the monographs on various aspects
of school law, which have been published by the Georgia School Boards Association
for many years). While all of these earlier legal reference tools were valuable
and useful, school board members and administrators have indicated to us for some
time that they needed and wanted a single up-to-the-minute resource which was easy
to use and would supply answers to their most frequently asked questions about school
law. We hope GSBA eLaw fills this need.
We have organized GSBA eLaw into major chapters, each of which covers a specific
topic of school law. The sources for the material covered in each chapter are referenced
by endnotes. For the most part, we have attempted to include the most direct or
original legal reference applicable in Georgia for the proposition stated. No attempt
has been made to include all cases or statutes in point in response to each question.
GSBA eLaw does not pretend to be a complete encyclopedia or a definitive
treatise on school law. Rather, our intent was to create a reference resource to
those areas of school law with which local board members and administrators need
to be most familiar. Most importantly, this resource is not intended to replace the
advice and counsel of the school district’s attorney. We hope that GSBA
eLaw will assist the user in identifying those issues, which require a more
detailed analysis from the school district’s attorney. Perhaps, local school board
attorneys will find in this online guide easy references to begin a more exhaustive
analysis of the issues presented here in summary form.
It is our intention and the intention of the Georgia School Boards Association to
constantly update this resource. To that end, we encourage users to suggest additional
questions for inclusion in future editions so that GSBA eLaw may continue
to develop into a useful resource to the Georgia public school community.
Sam Harben and Phil Hartley
Harben and Hartley Law Firm
Gainesville, Georgia
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