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Engel vs. Vitale
This Supreme Court decision made it so that it was illegal to require a prayer to be read at the beginning of the public school day. This was an important step in establishing a more inclusive religious environment for all students (and separating church and state). Because public schools are a government run institution, it was deemed inappropriate to have religious activities be a required part of the school schedule. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
While this Act is not directly related to education, it has impacted education, discrimination, and multicultural issues since it's implementation. This is a United States labor law that makes it illegal for any place of employment to discriminate based race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. This allowed students to have access to the same schools, regardless of race. -
Elementary and Secondary Education Act
This law was based by President Johnson in an effort to monitor the effectiveness of our schools and ideally, establish a more level playing field for all students. This law came at a time when the country had established a "War on Poverty" and aimed to help underprivileged children by allowing students to have equal access to education. -
Project Head Start
This program allows children from underprivileged backgrounds to have access to early childhood education. Because early childhood education can have a significant impact on the success rates of children throughout their education, making sure that people have equal access to it, regardless of their socioeconomic status is essential. Again, this allows for a more level playing field when it comes to equal access to quality education. -
The Bilingual Education Act
The act aimed to help Limited English Speaking Ability (LESA) students by creating a federal policy that established their right to equal education. The act gave federal funds to to school districts that came up with innovative ways to help their LESA students perform better. -
Epperson vs. Arkansas
Susan Epperson challenged the state of Arkansas in the Supreme Court over their law outlawing the teaching of evolution in public schools. The court decided in Epperson's favor, allowing the important concept of state and religion to remain separate. This allowed students whom might not have any access to the concept of evolution to learn about it, regardless of their religious beliefs, maintaining the country's educational integrity. -
Diana vs. California State Board
This lawsuit was brought against Soledad Unified School District in California on behalf of Mexican-American students who were at risk for being placed on a track for special-education. This lawsuit made it so that children, when tested for special education placement, had to be tested in their primary language. Unfortunately, before this lawsuit, many children were deemed as having below average IQ scores solely due to their inability to comprehend the tests in English. -
Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens (PARC) vs. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
A group of families, all of whom had children with disabilities, sued the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to allow their children to have access to free, public education. This was an important change in our educational system, where, previously, children could be discriminated against and denied a public education. -
Indian Education Act
This act provides federal funds focused on benefiting American Indian and Alaska Native children's access to education. It also allows for their parents to form advisory boards with the power to operate federally funded boarding schools. Most importantly, this act recognizes that students from different cultural backgrounds have different needs, in this case, Native American students. Ideally, this act allows these students to have more equal access to education that encompasses their culture. -
Title IX
Title IX legislation states that no person can be excluded from participating in any federally funded educational program or activity based on their sex. Today, this is applied to many college and high school sports programs, allowing for women athletes to have access to those activities. However, it also applies to other educational settings, including access to specific courses or programs. This legislation was instrumental in allowing women to have equal access to education.
