I've Been Thinking...

So. I’m sure laws vary by state and some things aren’t laws so much as they are just considered improper by most school districts (dating a student when they’re 18 but they’re still your student) but here’s a short list of things I notice come up a lot that are mostly unrelated to relationships. I don’t read those types of things. This is just small inaccuracies in high school AUs that take place in the US.

If you have any questions, I have plenty of friends in high school education. Let me know, I’ll get you the answer.

1. You can’t just pull a student’s file, nor another teacher’s. You can’t see a student’s full record unless you have backend access to the gradebook. Even then, most of what will come up is parent/guardian contact. You can’t even see a student’s IEP to it’s full extent. You can only see what they need (extended time, written directions rather than verbal, etc.). Exceptions are if a parent or the student (if they’re 18) sign to let you see their paperwork. You can’t know a coworker’s record either, but gossip goes around.

2. You can’t keep the door closed if you have only one student in your classroom. This, to my knowledge, is a pretty widely accepted expectation but not a legal thing. It’s to protect yourself. A student, parent, or fellow teacher can’t claim you spent excessive amounts of private time of the time was never private.

3. There isn’t supposed to be only one adult in a building if there are still students there. I think this might be a law, at least here.

4. You can’t drive a student home unless your own child is in the car. Enough said, it’s creepy.

5. Most states require background checks and fingerprinting.

6. New law, might only be in my state, if a student is younger than 9th grade, they legally cannot be made to miss lunch/recess. No working lunches without a signed waiver by a parent. Idk what people were doing, but they messed up.

7. There’s a legal rule, depending on your districts insurance, about how many adults per child you need for field trips. You can’t have just one teacher taking 60 kids. The number of required chaperone does lessen as the student’s age.

8. Taboo thing, you can’t use the normal bathrooms even when school isn’t in session.

9. There’s actually, fun fact, a legal guideline for how much homework should be given for a course to count for credit. It’s a minimum, so you can give more. It’s usually around 7 hrs/week in my district. And yes. That’s absurd when you multiply it per class. This is probably a per district thing but it is also directly correlated to your contact hours (aka the amount of hours with the students in the actual classroom).

10. In most states, only a nurse can administer pain medications, etc., and you need a signed note from a parent saying you can have it.

11. YES! There is a huge pay raise between teachers and principals. But, no one is in schools for the money unless you’re all the way up at the district or even state department.