• Convenient, flexible, easy-to-use

  • Online learning that fits
    your schedule
  • Learn wherever and whenever you want
  • Easy-to-use learning platform guides you through the course



• We've helped educators at more than 15,000 schools

  • "This is how I'm going to get my continuing education credits from now on."

    - Wendy J. Cope, French Teacher, Lancaster Catholic High School, Lancaster, PA

  • "This course lives up to its promise. It is real and easy to implement. It's made a big difference in my teaching!"

    - Frank Martin, Principal, The Stevens School

  • "I absolutely love the class I am taking. I am taking it to improve my leadership skills. It's been great!"

    - Connie Cullip, Special Education Supervisor, Rudyard, MI EUPISD




• • "The Coursework is convenient and interesting! I definitely recommend the program."

    - Jennifer Desloges, 7th Grade English Teacher Plymouth Elementary, Plymouth, NH

  • "I am through about 4 lectures and am loving the ease and simplicity of how it all works! Everything is so easy to navigate."

    - LuAnn Funk, 2nd Grade Teacher, Case Avenue Elementary

• • "I took this course with some reservation, but it proved to be very helpful. Some of the simple things that I learned made a huge impact on the amount of energy my students put into learning"

    
    

    "It was easy to do. I got to work at my own pace, explore all the websites and absorb the materials As a 28 year veteran I do believe you can teach old dogs new tricks."

    - Joseph Fusco, Physics Teacher Lodi High School, NJ

Course 1038

The Safer School: Disciplining Students without Getting Sued

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Apply this towards your professional development requirements

Tuition: $575 for all 3 modules complete

This convenient, online course, delivered by the nation’s foremost legal experts and educators, combines the following three learning modules to give you practical learnings you can put in place immediately at your school:

     1. Disciplining Students for Offsite Misconduct: Policy Options and the Law

     2. Student Search & Seizure Guidelines: What's Legal and What's Not

     3. Cyberbullying, Cell Phone Abuse, Technology Misconduct and More:

         What Educators Can and Can't Do Now

Countless lawsuits have been brought against well-meaning schools and educators who thought they were following both the letter and spirit of the law, but who inadvertently crossed the ever-shifting legal line . This course clears up three of the trickiest legal mine fields facing educators at all levels and enables you to conveniently earn professional development credits/hours and Certificates of Completion/Attendance whenever and wherever you like.

What You'll Learn

How far does a school's discipline policy reach? That is a question school administrators struggle with all the time. Not only must in-school behavior be regulated, but you also have the growing responsibility for supervision and discipline of out-of-school activities and incidents. Understanding what educators can and can't do legally is critical to maintaining a safe environment for everyone. You'll learn:

• Legal guidelines for out-of-school disciplinary action
• Out-of-school discipline: The line schools should never cross
• When it is and isn't appropriate to discipline students off school grounds
• How to communicate with parents about off-campus behavior

Highlights

Out-of-School Discipline: What You Can and Can't Do

• Keys to determine where and when schools can discipline students
• What authority do you have for disciplining students for off-site incidents?
• Off-campus situations: Bus stops, sporting events, field trips and more

Legal Guidelines that Govern Off-Campus Discipline

• Legally, how far can you go when disciplining students
• Fourth Amendment issues & due process requirements
• Out-of-School speech: Where to draw the line
• Suggestions for protecting yourself from backlash and lawsuits

Online incidents: Cyberbullying and other Web-Related Behavior

• When can schools step in on bullying after school hours?
• The best ways to respond to off-campus student misconduct
• What other forms of out-of-school incidents are rampant today?

What You'll Learn

4th amendment rights in schools and student search and seizure continues to be difficult and confusing for educators. Issues regarding police involvement, strip searches, pat downs, back packs, and technology-based searches are tricky and often get schools, administrators and teachers in trouble. This module will give you a complete understanding of the most-current legal rulings to help you stay in compliance and out of court during this. In this module you're learn:

• 4 ways to determine if Search and Seizure is appropriate
• How to abide by constitutional constraints and avoid costly litigation
• How to navigate the "grey areas" not covered in case law
• The most common mistakes schools are making - and how to avoid them
• Reasonable cause, equal protection, and other key definitions & concepts

Highlights

Search and Seizure in Schools: What's Legal and What's Not

• If and when students can consent to waive their rights
• Where students have a reasonable expectation of privacy
• How the legal interaction between schools & law enforcement operates

Clarifying 4th Amendment Rights in Schools

• Managing & investigating student behavior under the 4th amendment
• Reasonableness standard: Determining lawful & unlawful seizure
• Administrative searches: Dos and don'ts to ensure compliance

Legal Update: New Cases that Are Impacting Schools

• Pat down searches of students - what's legal?
• Metal detector and other technology-based searches
• Backpack, canine, strip searches & more: it's all addressed in this module

What You'll Learn

Technology misconduct and abuse, including cyberbullying and cell phones in the classroom, are widespread across the country, starting with students in elementary school. Understanding what students are doing, where they're doing it, how they're doing it and the legal aspects of their conduct is critical to preventing this growing problem.

• Cyberbullying: What you need to know
• Legally disciplining technology misconduct: What's working and what's not; What's legal and what's not
• Best practices to proactively combat cyberbullying, cell phones in the classroom, cheating and other forms of misconduct
• How to communicate with parents about dangerous online activities

Highlights

The Realities of Cyberbullying and What You Can and Can’t do

• How far can you go in regulating student speech online?
• Abuses of social networking sites and what’s really going on
• Suggestions for protecting yourself from potential liability
• Inappropriate and offensive student-created Internet Web sites

Legal Update on Technology Abuse and Discipline

• Fourth Amendment issues & due process requirements you need to know
• What are the laws against cyberbullying and other technology abuses?
• How are the courts weighing in on technology abuse cases?

Other Internet Issues

• The statistics and trends: How does the use and abuse of technology at your school compare?
• How online predators are threatening your students now
• How does cyberpornography, privacy and the liability of ISPs impact your school?
• Disguised plagiarism and inventive cheating: What students are doing now
• What other forms of abuse and harassment are rampant today?

The Virtual Teachers Lounge™

Check in with your peers and get answers to your questions – any time, 24/7. Taking this course will give you exclusive access to the thoughts, insights and experience of other educators and K-12 experts discussing your topics and giving you solutions and ideas for whatever is on your mind. In the Teachers' lounge, you can:

• Learn new, working strategies and solutions from other educators – live!
• Get answers to your toughest questions from top K-12 experts
• Discuss course topics with your peers and benefit from their experiences
• Share your success stories and best practices to benefit other teachers and administrators
• Get new perspectives, fresh ideas and guidance – whenever you need it.
• You can log whenever is most convenient for you, 24/7

All you have to do is sign up for this course, and you're in!

Connect with, hear from and get help from you peers.

Materials & Assessment

Lectures	Your lectures, delivered by one of the nation's leading, recognized experts on this topic, are presented in multiple parts to make listening and tracking your progress easier. You can listen to each as often as you like by playing it on your computer, downloading it to your iPod or other MP3 player, even burning it to CD. Listen wherever it is most convenient for you: at home, in your car; at the park; and whenever you like: before or after work, at night or on weekends. Many educators can complete a module in only a week.
Text Resources	Virtual text resources are downloadable and expand on the material covered in your lectures. They may include articles, web links to related materials and web sites, definitions of important terms and concepts, and a bibliography. All materials can be viewed on your computer or downloaded and printed.
Assessment	To receive your Certificate of Completion or Certificate of Attendance and earn Professional Development/Continuing Education units/credits/hours, you will need to complete all assessments and submit all final projects.
Virtual Teachers Lounge	To gain Professional Development credits or hours for any of these three modules, you must participate in the Virtual teachers Lounge discussion for that module. If you are not seeking credits or hours, participation in the Lounge is not mandatory, but you are still welcome to connect with and share your thoughts, questions, insights and experience with your peers at any time.