lawprofessors

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995 Did you dread exercise as a child or did you long to run and play kickball during math or English instruction? It seems that the time allotted for Physical Education (PE) has dwindled over the years, but California students still have a right to receive PE on a daily basis (unless exempted). PE may seem like an obvious need: of course students should be taught baseball, basketball, how to run fast or just play with a team.  It is not as obvious as you may think.  Rather than ramp up PE to fight obesity, America chose other routes, such as attacking sugary drinks via taxes , attempts to stop the sale of extra large sodas , blame on fast food , while at the same time PE and children's activity levels dwindled over time. With the crisis of deteriorating schools, dwindling test scores and  America falling behind the world in education , PE became something easy to cut out of school curriculums.   Ho...

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995 I have been approached in the past by families of students denied the right to walk at their commencement exercise (aka graduation ceremony).  They will be given a diploma, usually via mail, but have been told not to bother coming to the graduation ceremony itself.  Needless to say, families in this situation are very unhappy. Adding to the issue is usually the fact that the student's family heard about the matter a mere week or two prior to the commencement exercise, which is a once in a lifetime event. The bottom line is that if a student has met the academic requirements for graduation from, for example, a public high school, they DO have a legal right to a diploma from the institution they attended.  For example, if they get those 220 units, pass the CAHSEE (California High School Exit Examination), and meet their class requirements, they earn their diploma which cannot be denied. However, the "ri...