The School Law Institute
Teachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College
Columbia University

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Jay P. Heubert

J.D., Ed.D. (Institute co-chair), is Professor of Law and Education at Teachers College and Adjunct Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. He teaches courses on education law and policy and has won numerous teaching awards.  A Carnegie Scholar, in June 2001 he received the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Alumni Award for Outstanding Contribution to Education.  He has also been chief counsel to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, a civil-rights lawyer with the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and a high-school English teacher.  He also served as study director for a Congressionally-mandated study of high-stakes testing conducted by the National Academy of Sciences.

Rhode e. schneider

Rhoda E. Schneider

J.D. (Institute co-chair), is General Counsel and Senior Associate Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. For over 30 years she has been chief legal advisor to the commissioner, state board, and department staff. She has advised six successive commissioners and served twice herself as acting commissioner. Besides providing legal guidance to the commissioner and the agency in carrying out their responsibilities to support education reform in Massachusetts, Schneider and her staff also respond to requests from school officials, parents and students, and other constituents on the state and federal laws affecting public elementary and secondary schools. She is a frequent presenter at national and state conferences on education law, and written a variety of articles on developments in education law and is the editor of the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education book, School Law in Massachusetts.
 

Gary orfield

Gary Orfield

Ph.D., is a professor of Education, Law, Political Science and Urban Planning at the UCLA Graduate School of Education. He is the Co-founder and Co-director of the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, which is the nation’s leading research center on issues of civil rights and racial inequality.  He has authored numerous books, articles, and reports on civil rights, education policy, urban policy, and minority opportunity. On school desegregation, affirmative action, and many other important civil-rights issues, he has helped lead the national effort to stave off the end of the second Reconstruction that began with Brown v. Board of Education. He has won national and international awards and recognition for his work.

Gandara patricia

Patricia Gandara

Ph.D., is a professor at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Co-director of the UCLA Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, which is the nation’s leading research center on issues of civil rights and racial inequality.  She is also Associate Director of the UC Linguistic Minority Research Institute (LMRI) and Director of the LMRI Education Policy Center. She has served as Commissioner for Postsecondary Education in California, a bilingual school psychologist, a social scientist with the RAND Corporation, and director of education research for the California State Assembly.  Her research focuses on educational equity and access for low income and ethnic minority students, language policy, and the education of Mexican origin youth.  Her most recent publication is Understanding the Latino Education Gap, Why Latinos Don't Go to College (Harvard University Press, 2009).

Dennis parker

Dennis D. Parker

J.D., is the Director of the ACLU National Office's Racial Justice Program where he coordinates the racial justice work done by the ACLU's national office and its affiliates. In previous positions, he has served as Chief of the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State Attorney General's Office.  He has also served Director of Education Litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He has numerous publications on housing discrimination, educational equity, affirmative action, and testing, and has served as an adjunct professor at New York Law School.
 

Michael rebell

Michael A. Rebell

J.D., is one of the nation’s leading authorities on school-finance reform and the right to an adequate education.  He is currently the Executive Director of the Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College, a Professor of Law and Educational Practice there, and an adjunct professor of law at Columbia Law School.  He served previously as Executive Director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which won a major lawsuit against the State of New York for inadequate funding of schools in New York City.  He is the dozens of articles and education law, and the author of several books, including Courts and Kids:  Pursuing Educational Equity through the State Courts (University of Chicago Press, 2009).


Jack jennings

Jack F. Jennings, Esq.

President and CEO, founded the Center on Education Policy in January 1995. From 1967 to 1994, he served as subcommittee staff director and then as general counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Education and Labor. In these positions, he was involved in nearly every major education debate held at the national level, including the reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Vocational Education Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the Higher Education Act. 


Maree sneed

Maree Sneed

J.D., is a senior partner at the Washington, DC law firm Hogan & Hartson and director of the firm’s nationally prominent education practice. She serves on the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and as a board member and secretary of the National School Boards Foundation. She advises school districts, educational associations, and private companies in the education sector on state and federal legal issues. Recently Maree was counsel of record in two major Supreme Court cases, Schaffer v. Weast and PICS v. Seattle School District No. 1. Previously she also worked as a teacher and administrator in the Montgomery County Public Schools.


Perry zirkel

Perry A. Zirkel

J.D., LL.M., Ph.D. University Professor of Education and Law, at Lehigh University, where he held the Iacocca Chair in Education has also served as Dean of the College of Education. He has written over 1,000 publications on various aspects of school law and is a frequent presenter across the country.  He writes a regular column for Phi Delta Kappan, Teaching Exceptional Children, and Principal magazine. A nationally prominent expert on special education, his research currently focuses on empirical and practical studies of special education law, with secondary attention to more general education law and current labor arbitration issues.
 



John B. King, Jr.

Dr. John B. King, Jr., Ed.D., J.D., serves as Senior Deputy Commissioner for P-12 Education at the New York State Education Department where he is responsible for ensuring quality and accountability for New York State’s education system. King brings extensive experience leading urban public schools that are closing the achievement gap in his role as a Managing Director with Uncommon Schools, a non-profit charter management organization that operates some of the highest performing urban public schools in New York and New Jersey. Prior to joining Uncommon Schools, Dr. King was a Co-Founder and Co-Director for Curriculum & Instruction of Roxbury Preparatory Charter School. Under his leadership, Roxbury Prep’s students attained the highest state exam scores of any urban middle school in Massachusetts, closed the racial achievement gap, and outperformed students from not only the Boston district schools but also the city’s affluent suburbs. 

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Welcome

The Program

The School Law Institute at Columbia University is a national professional education program. It examines significant recent developments in school law and the impact they have on students, teachers, administrators, and schools. For over 20 years, the five-day summer institute has provided new and career educators the information they need to navigate the legal system successfully.


Under the direction of Teachers College Professor of Law and Education Jay Heubert and Massachusetts Department of Education General Counsel Rhoda Schneider, participants in the School Law Institute partake in a stimulating, inspiring, and informative education among a diverse and interested group of peers--scholars, school administrators, teachers, policymakers, and lawyers from around the world.


The Institute will convene from July 12-16, 2010, in air-conditioned conference space at Columbia Law School. Day sessions will be devoted to presentations, large group discussions, small-group work, case studies, and simulations. Faculty will be available to talk with participants throughout the week. Daily refreshment breaks will offer additional opportunities to continue discussions begun in class. 


Who Should Attend?

The Institute serves participants from all parts of the U.S. and explores the perspectives of practitioners, policy makers, policy analysts, advocates, attorneys, journalists, and graduate students interested in public education.

It addresses the interests and needs of building- and district-level administrators, school board members, education-department personnel, policy analysts, guidance counselors, union representatives, teachers and guidance counselors, special education and bilingual/ESL staff, journalists, school lawyers, and advocates interested in public education.

Students in such fields as education leadership, education policy, teacher education, special education, and bilingual education/ESL will also find the Institute valuable.

This year we will include a new focus on charter schools, law, policy, and practice.


Participants may earn three graduate credits through Teachers College and/or be eligible for continuing education credits. Participants are not eligible for continuing legal education credits.


Participants can expect to ...

  • Acquire up-to-date information on significant new changes and trends in school law;
  • Discuss the relationship between law and educational policy, with special attention given to the ethical, administrative, and instructional questions that legal disputes often raised; and
  • Consider strategies for preventive law and sound educational decision-making.

School Law Institute 


Dates:

July 12-16, 2010


Times:

9am-5pm


Course Number:

ORLA 5880.001/CRN 21946


Program Administrators:

Ali Hawkins

Sarah Benis


Phone Contact:

212.678.8331


Email Contact:

sli@tc.edu


Institute Registration:

Individuals registering on a non-credit basis: click here.

Current TC students registering for three credits: click here.

Non-TC individuals registering for 3 graduate credits: click here.*

*After completing your application, notify us at sli@tc.edu to register immediately rather than waiting until May 19th.


Fees:

3 credits at $1,127 per credit ($3381 total)

Also available for non-credit/3 CEUs at $1,650.

Course reading materials (approximately $125)