Legal Liabilities of School Administrators

LEGAL LIABILITIES
OF
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS

This research paper deals with the legal liabilities of school administrators, primarily school board superintendents, principals and assistant principals to third parties. The emphasis is on the public schools through grade K-12. Traditionally, school board administrators were largely insulated under state law from liability. Since the 1970s, the liability exposure of school districts, school administrators and teachers has exponentially expanded. Largely due to the effects of various forms of federal intervention in the public schools and the creation and enforcement of private federal causes of action against them, the task of school administration has become highly legally intensive and the relationship between public school officials and students and parents has become much more adversarial. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the pendulum in public education shifted to a concern over educational standards and greater local, including greater parental, control over school decisions. The latter trend has only served to complicate the legal position of school administrators. Traditional Liability Exposure of School Administrators Traditionally, courts have been reluctant to interfere with the exercise of discretion by school districts, administrators and teachers, except in cases involving egregious abuses, a lack of good faith or other violations of state law. At one time, public school administrators (but not teachers) were exempt from civil liability to students or others under the doctrine of sovereign immunity. According to Tanner (1972), the general rule was that "school districts and municipalities are not liable for pupil injury" (p. 525). State statutes insulating these bodies and officials from civil liability remain in effect in a number of states, especially in the South and Southwest. This immunity has been revoked or diluted by decisions of state courts in many others. If immunity is applicable, a

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