Introduction: Family Law and Children's Educational Rights

• Date: 01 January 2024

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Introduction: Family Law and Children’s

Educational Rights

LISA F. GRUMET*

As the country commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Supreme

Court’s monumental civil rights decision in Brown v. Board of Education, I

am thrilled to present this issue on Family Law and Children’s Educational

Rights. The articles address a range of current legal, policy, and practice

issues relating to the overlapping elds of family law, elementary and

secondary education law, civil rights law, and children’s rights.

The issue begins with an overview of children’s educational rights.

In Restating the Law Governing Children’s Education, Professor Emily

Buss discusses the education provisions of the new Restatement of the

Law, Children and the Law, which is scheduled for approval in May 2024.

Professor Buss served as an Associate Reporter for the Restatement project.

The Restatement includes provisions concerning the responsibility of the

state and the responsibilities of parents to ensure children receive a “sound

basic education.” The state’s obligation has been recognized by state courts

interpreting state constitutional provisions; parents’ obligations have been

recognized through compulsory attendance laws and child neglect laws.

Professor Buss explains that “[t]he Restatement claries the alignment of

the educational duty of parent and state by harmonizing the terminology

in the sections addressing both parent’s and state’s educational duty . . .

and requiring both parent and state to provide a ‘sound basic education’

to children.” Her article also provides historical context for the state’s

role in public education, and surveys federal constitutional protections for

children in public schools.

The next two articles discuss how children’s educational rights conict

with so-called “parents’ rights” initiatives that have targeted efforts to

promote racial justice and LGBTQ+ rights and foster inclusivity through

school curricula. In The Ontological Expansiveness of “Parental Rights”

Rhetoric in K–12 Public Schools, Professor Sacha M. Coupet and Kai

Scott compare these initiatives to racist resistance to the Brown decision.

*Faculty Editor in Chief, Family Law Quarterly; Professor of Law and Director, Diane

Abbey Law Institute for Children and Families, New York Law School.

Published in Family Law Quarterly, Volume 57, Numbers 2&3, 2024. © 2024 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof

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