THE APPLICATION OF THE EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT TO THE USE OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, EXCEPTIONALITY, SEX, SCHOOL FEES, MARRIAGE, AND PREGNANCY AS CRITERIA FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF STUDENTS WITHIN A SCHOOL

The equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment has had a major impact on shaping the nature and scope of public education in this country. The Supreme Court decision in Brown (1954) initiated a series of cases in which the clause was used as a safeguard against racial discrimination in the public schools. By 1970, the attention of the courts had expanded from an initial interest in alleviating racial discrimination in education to a more general concern over providing every child with an equal educational opportunity. The equal protection clause emerged as the legal cornerstone of the educational equality movement. As a consequence, many well-established state laws and traditional practices of school officials were subjected to close scrutiny by the courts.;The Court opinion in Brown (1954) represented a distinct turning point in the judicial interpretation of the equal protection clause as it relates to the rights of public school students. Therefore, the year 1954 was used to distinguish the historical background from the current research in the study. The issues were studied through a detailed examination of decisions of state and federal courts of record which have been reported in any of the fifty states between the 1954 Brown decision and December 31, 1976. The cases were identified, analyzed, and reported in Chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 2 contains background information about the historical development of the Fourteenth Amendment. Chapter 3 contains an analysis of cases involving the application of the equal protection clause to certain academic criteria which are often used to determine the eligibility and placement of students within a public school. Chapter 4 contains an examination of the equal protection clause as it has been applied to certain non-academic criteria used to determine the eligibility and placement of students within a school. Chapter 5 contains relevant findings, conclusions, and recommendations.;This research involved a legal study of court decisions which have applied the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the use of certain criteria in classifying students within a public school. The purpose of the study was to determine the degree to which state laws, school district policies, and school rules regulating student eligibility and placement are in conflict with the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The study focused on the judicial interpretation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as it has been used to define the rights of students with respect to their eligibility and placement in the curricular and extracurricular programs and activities within a public school, based on provisions of state laws, school district policies, and school rules. More specifically, the research was organized around seeking answers to the following questions: (1) May school district authorities use scholastic achievement requirements to regulate the eligibility and placement of a student? (2) May school district authorities use the exceptionality of a student as a basis for determining the eligibility and placement of that student within a school? (3) May school district authorities use the sex of a student as a basis for determining the eligibility and placement of that student within a school? (4) May school district authorities require a student to pay a fee in order to be eligible for a program, a course, or an activity within a school? (5) May school district authorities use marriage or pregnancy as a basis for determining the eligibility and placement of a student within a school?...