WGU School Law D017 Test Questions
and Complete Detailed Answers
Common School Movement - Answer: (1820-1865)
Horace Mann, Mass.
Effort to fund schools in every community with public dollars - start of systematic public schooling.
A Nation at Risk - Answer: 1983 National Commission report calling for extensive educational
reforms, including more academic course requirements, more stringent college entrance
requirements, upgraded and updated textbooks, and longer school days and year. Content,
expectations, time, teaching.
Role of Federal Government in Schools - Answer: Can influence education thorough funding powers
and enforcement of constitutional rights.
Federal Legislation - Answer: Law at the highest or national level of a federal government, consisting
of a constitution, enacted laws and court decisions pertaining to them. In education compliance is
usually attached to funding.
State Legislation - Answer: States pass laws on issues. Example: compulsory attendance laws. Must
be constitutional.
What are Federal and State Regulations? - Answer: Supplements to the law that are legally binding.
Help explain how the law should be interpreted and implemented.
Case or Common Law - Answer: The body of law made up of judicial opinions and precedents
State Court Structure - Answer: Varies by state but general includes trial court, state courts of
appeal, and a state supreme court. Any federal question would go to the US District Court instead of
the Trial court.
,Separate but Equal Doctrine - Answer: Established in Plessy v. Ferguson that African Americans
could constitutionally be kept in separate but equal facilities.
Unitary System - Answer: The status a school system achieves "when it no longer discriminates
between school children on the basis of race,"
ReZoning of Schools - Answer: Because of a long history of gerrymandering boundary lines with the
intent to segregate, many school boundaries during the 1950s and 1960s had little to do with
geographic barriers (e.g., rivers, hills); safety issues (e.g., location of busy roads, factories); or the
size, location, or dispersion of the student population. When the schools were rezoned with good
faith the schools were better integrated.
1st Amendment - Answer: Religion, speech, press, assembly, petition. Freedom of Expression.
Constitutional limits of religious expression for students. - Answer: Students have a free exercise
right to engage in private devotional activities in public schools as long as they do not interfere with
regular school activities.
Church and State Relations - Answer: Students and teachers are not required to pledge allegiance to
the flag and can sit or stand during this part of the day.
States clearly have the authority to require vaccination against communicable diseases as a
prerequisite to school attendance.
Religious exemptions can be made for components to the state prescribed curriculum. teachers
cannot assert a free exercise right to disregard aspects of the state-prescribed curriculum but
students can.
Evolution can be taught because it is science and creationism can not be because it is religious and
has no scientific backing.
4th Amendment - Answer: Search and Seizure
School personnel can search students' lockers or personal belongings based on reasonable suspicion
that the student possesses contraband that is either illegal or in violation of school policy. -Lockers
are school property and subject to inspection.
, Under the probable cause standard, a governmental official must have reasonable grounds of
suspicion, supported by sufficient evidence, to cause a cautious person to believe that the suspected
individual is guilty of the alleged offense and that the search will produce evidence of the crime
committed.
The search must be justified and the scope of the search must be reasonable.
5th Amendment - Answer: In part, the Fifth Amendment provides that no person shall be
"compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or
property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just
compensation."
The Right to Remain Silent/Double Jeopardy, right to due process
14th Amendment - Answer: Due process, equal protection
Protects students from being treated differently based solely on a single distinguishing characteristic
and from illegal search and seizure.
Compulsory Attendance Act - Answer: 1852
1st law requiring students to participate in school, mandatory 8-14 years old
State level law: mandates attendance in public schools by children within certain age ranges for
specific periods of time within the year.
The state mandates it. Supreme Court has made rulings regarding it.To protect kids from child labor
National Defense Education Act - Answer: 1958
Enacted by Eisenhower in response to the launching of Sputnik by Russia.
One of the most successful legislative initiatives in higher ed. Made substantial funds available for
low cost loans. expanded college libraries, STEM and foreign languages.
and Complete Detailed Answers
Common School Movement - Answer: (1820-1865)
Horace Mann, Mass.
Effort to fund schools in every community with public dollars - start of systematic public schooling.
A Nation at Risk - Answer: 1983 National Commission report calling for extensive educational
reforms, including more academic course requirements, more stringent college entrance
requirements, upgraded and updated textbooks, and longer school days and year. Content,
expectations, time, teaching.
Role of Federal Government in Schools - Answer: Can influence education thorough funding powers
and enforcement of constitutional rights.
Federal Legislation - Answer: Law at the highest or national level of a federal government, consisting
of a constitution, enacted laws and court decisions pertaining to them. In education compliance is
usually attached to funding.
State Legislation - Answer: States pass laws on issues. Example: compulsory attendance laws. Must
be constitutional.
What are Federal and State Regulations? - Answer: Supplements to the law that are legally binding.
Help explain how the law should be interpreted and implemented.
Case or Common Law - Answer: The body of law made up of judicial opinions and precedents
State Court Structure - Answer: Varies by state but general includes trial court, state courts of
appeal, and a state supreme court. Any federal question would go to the US District Court instead of
the Trial court.
,Separate but Equal Doctrine - Answer: Established in Plessy v. Ferguson that African Americans
could constitutionally be kept in separate but equal facilities.
Unitary System - Answer: The status a school system achieves "when it no longer discriminates
between school children on the basis of race,"
ReZoning of Schools - Answer: Because of a long history of gerrymandering boundary lines with the
intent to segregate, many school boundaries during the 1950s and 1960s had little to do with
geographic barriers (e.g., rivers, hills); safety issues (e.g., location of busy roads, factories); or the
size, location, or dispersion of the student population. When the schools were rezoned with good
faith the schools were better integrated.
1st Amendment - Answer: Religion, speech, press, assembly, petition. Freedom of Expression.
Constitutional limits of religious expression for students. - Answer: Students have a free exercise
right to engage in private devotional activities in public schools as long as they do not interfere with
regular school activities.
Church and State Relations - Answer: Students and teachers are not required to pledge allegiance to
the flag and can sit or stand during this part of the day.
States clearly have the authority to require vaccination against communicable diseases as a
prerequisite to school attendance.
Religious exemptions can be made for components to the state prescribed curriculum. teachers
cannot assert a free exercise right to disregard aspects of the state-prescribed curriculum but
students can.
Evolution can be taught because it is science and creationism can not be because it is religious and
has no scientific backing.
4th Amendment - Answer: Search and Seizure
School personnel can search students' lockers or personal belongings based on reasonable suspicion
that the student possesses contraband that is either illegal or in violation of school policy. -Lockers
are school property and subject to inspection.
, Under the probable cause standard, a governmental official must have reasonable grounds of
suspicion, supported by sufficient evidence, to cause a cautious person to believe that the suspected
individual is guilty of the alleged offense and that the search will produce evidence of the crime
committed.
The search must be justified and the scope of the search must be reasonable.
5th Amendment - Answer: In part, the Fifth Amendment provides that no person shall be
"compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or
property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just
compensation."
The Right to Remain Silent/Double Jeopardy, right to due process
14th Amendment - Answer: Due process, equal protection
Protects students from being treated differently based solely on a single distinguishing characteristic
and from illegal search and seizure.
Compulsory Attendance Act - Answer: 1852
1st law requiring students to participate in school, mandatory 8-14 years old
State level law: mandates attendance in public schools by children within certain age ranges for
specific periods of time within the year.
The state mandates it. Supreme Court has made rulings regarding it.To protect kids from child labor
National Defense Education Act - Answer: 1958
Enacted by Eisenhower in response to the launching of Sputnik by Russia.
One of the most successful legislative initiatives in higher ed. Made substantial funds available for
low cost loans. expanded college libraries, STEM and foreign languages.
