Education Policy Archives

Feb 10

Student Speech Rights On Social Media: When Schools Can Discipline

A group chat lights up at 11:30 p.m. Someone drops a screenshot of an Instagram story. By the first period, the post has reached a counselor’s inbox. By lunch, two students are arguing in the hallway about what it meant. For school leaders, social media is not an abstract concept. It shapes mornings, attendance, counseling […]

by Jonathan Pierce

Student Records FERPA Explained – What Parents and Students Can Request

The direct answer is this: FERPA gives students and, in some cases, parents the legal right to access, review, and request corrections to education records held by schools, while also strictly limiting who else can see that information without consent. It does not give unlimited access to everything a school creates, and it does not […]

by Jonathan Pierce

Can Schools Ban Certain Hairstyles or Clothing? Constitutional Limits Explained

The clear legal answer is this: schools can regulate hairstyles and clothing, but only within constitutional limits, and those limits are tighter than many school policies assume. Public schools, as government actors, must respect students’ constitutional rights. Dress codes and grooming rules are allowed, but bans that are arbitrary, discriminatory, unrelated to education, or that […]

by Ethan Dumfries