Education Law is a branch of law that relates to schools and deals mainly with school boards, school systems, and the school that are in charge of children’s education. The local governments and the states are the primary responsible in operating the public school of a nation. This is in accordance to the education laws of every state constitution. Every state operates, maintains, and develops its own school system within its boundaries. This is one of the reasons why there are significant differences between states when it comes to the financial mechanism and management of public schools.
There are six important regulations comprising the Education Law. All these regulations greatly affect the leaners. These regulations include the 50% Rule, the 12-Hour Rule, the DEDP (Distance Education Demonstration Program), the FERPA (Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act), the TEACH Act (Technology & Education Copyright Harmonization), and the special educational laws for handicapped.
The 50% Rule was established in 1992 and still continues until today. This regulation is accompanied with the 1998 Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. It does not include the Title IV eligible institutions in offering federal financial assistance. This regulation offers learners through distance education some courses that are equal to the half of all the courses. The courses may include telecommunications and correspondences.
Similar to the 50% Rule, the original intention of 12-Hour Rule is to ward off fraud by correspondence programs and diploma mills. This regulation is mandated and non-traditional, which means that the higher education programs do not operate on a traditional academic calendar. The 12-Hour Rule consists of weekly regular schedules of examination preparations, examinations, and instruction in order for a student to become eligible for the financial assistance from the federal entity.
The DEDP was created in 1998 with an objective of testing the rules concerning the financial assistance for the distance education required to be changed. Today, numerous distance learning systems, universities, adn colleges were granted by the Congress. Consortia of institutions are also granted in order to provide students ultimate access to the Title IV funding.
The FERPA was enacted in 1974. It is also referred as the Buckley Amendment. This act deals with the privacy or confidentiality of the student records as well as its reviews and releasing. It allows students to review their educational records and request for any amendments on any inaccurate data records.
TEACH Act is created for the rights of the educators. This act covers work performance and display of the educator. It also involves the fair use of education works inside a classroom. On October 2002, this act became a written law wherein a virtual classrom was held to mark distinction on the standards.
Special education laws refer to the civil rights intended for disabled students. It also involves other legislation that addresses the educational rights of students with disabilities. The first major law created under this regulation is providing guarantee on educational rights of handicapped or disabled children from age 5 to 21. This law was enacted as the Children Act of 1975.