Illinois Loop: Parent Rights

The Illinois Loop website is no longer updated on a a regular basis. However, since many of the links and articles have content and perspectives that are just as valid today, we are keeping this website online for parents, teachers and others researching school issues and solutions.

Broken links:If you encounter links that no longer lead to the desired article, it's still often possible to retrieve them. Most of the linked items include a sentence or more from the original. Copy a section of that text, and type it into Google surrounded by quotes. More often than not, Google will find the article at a revised location.

-- Kevin C. Killion, writer, editor and webmaster

On this page:

Sue Your District?

Curriculum

Freedom of Information

District Boundaries

Other related pages:

School Committees

Have You Been Delphi'ed?

Public Relations

Spinmeisters Come To Town

PTAs, PTOs and Other Groups

How to Choose a School

Parent Rights

Sen. Ted Kennedy Holding Up Parental Rights Amendment by John Rossomando, November 07, 2001. "An amendment to the education bill, aimed at giving parents the right to inspect their child's educational materials and shield the child from invasive questions and medical examinations at school, faces a powerful foe -- Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy."

Getting Your Child the Help They Need at School by Dr. Kathleen Loftus, February 22, 2005. (Dr. Loftus is a resident of Buffalo Grove, IL.)

About the I.E.P. Meeting, an interview with Dr. Kathleen Loftus

The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates: "What is COPAA? (COPAA) is an independent, nonprofit, �501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization of attorneys, advocates and parents. Our primary mission is to secure high quality educational services for children with disabilities."

Sue Your District?

Suburban Chicago Mom wants to sue her district: "I have reached my breaking point on what my children have not been taught in this stinking school district (CUSD 303). I am wondering what you think of this idea: I want to sue the district for not teaching my two children to read and to do math -- for all the anguish that it has caused them and our family, for all the stress that [my son] still is dealing with not being able to comprehend things that he reads."

Parents Sue for Better Schools: Courts Become Last Resort For The Desperate, by Anna Bray Duff, Investors Business Daily, September 17, 1999. "There's little doubt that schools feel they're under siege from lawsuits that threaten their budgets and their ability to do their job. ... But there's another side to the story: Lawsuits are often the only way parents can prod a slow- moving school bureaucracy to action." This article goes on to explore three situations in detail, involving:

Fuzzy math curriculum
Lack of rigorous coursework
Inappropriate special-education placement

Will It Take Litigation? by Donna Garner, June 4, 1998. "As a classroom teacher myself, I hate to admit that it may take litigation to force the education bureaucracy to rid itself of damaging educational practices. ... Is it going to take the threat of litigation to force the education bureaucracy to do the 'right thing' in order to help children learn to read and write? Surely we educators are not that hardheaded, are we?"

Is It States' "Duty" To Educate All?, Investors Business Daily, November 15, 1999. "What is a "sound basic education" and how much should it cost? Such questions lie at the core of a court battle being waged in the New York State Supreme Court."

Why Not Sue "Big Schooling"? by Casey Lartigue, Cato Institute. "Many people have chuckled at stories about people suing the 'Big Food' and 'Big Tobacco' industries. As frivolous as these cases may be, we should get serious about charging the public school system with committing widespread educational malpractice. Educational malpractice is commonly defined as the failure to adequately educate a student. What else can we call it when, according to the National Institute for Literacy, an estimated 23 percent of people in America (almost 50 million people) are functionally illiterate despite attending school for years?"

High Court Turns Down Trampoline Injury Suit by Michael Higgins Chicago Tribune, July 6, 2006. "A former middle-school pupil who was left a quadriplegic at 13 after a trampoline accident in his extracurricular tumbling class cannot sue Chicago Public Schools, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. ... in a 4-3 vote, the Supreme Court said that school officials were immune from suit unless they acted 'willfully and wantonly' to endanger [the child]."

Illinois Parents and Curriculum

From the Illinois School Code:

Any member of the public may inspect all text and instructional material used in the public schools.
(105 ILCS 5/28-19.1)

Freedom of Information Act

District Boundaries

Schools, Teachers, Parents and the Community

For more information on the role, perspectives and involvement of teachers, parents and the community with schools, see these other pages on our website:

PTAs, PTOs and Other Groups: Who does your PTA really represent?
School Committees: Have you served on a school committee? Were you disappointed with the results? Read this!
Public Relations: Your school may have hired professional help in selling a change to your community
In-Service Workshops: What are the teachers doing when the kids have that day off?