WGU D017 - SCHOOL LAW EXAM QUESTIONS WITH CORRECT ANSWERS LATEST UPDATE 2026
The Common School Movement - Answers 1830's: american families could not afford to pay for
education. Horace mann and Henry Barnard made it possible for common schools to establish
themselves as the first public schools in the nation
Common Schools - Answers primary schools and taught rudiments
Massachusetts Law of 1827 - Answers prohibited the use or purchase of school books that favor any
particular religion
Compulsory Attendance Act of 1852 - Answers children between the ages of 8 and 14 must attend
school for twelve weeks per year, six of which had to be consecutive. This law was weakly enforced
but initiated a number of court cases confirming that states have the authority to mandate school
attendance
Commonwealth v. Gillen - Answers Gillen's unwillingness to comply with the vaccination rule did not
exempt him from attendance requirements and that the instruction in the home did not meet the
statutory requirement that alternatives to the public school be by a "properly qualified private tutor"
and "satisfactory to the proper county or district superintendent of schools." Without the money to
hire a tutor, Gillen had no other choice but to vaccinate his children or move to another state with
less stringent laws.
1923 case Meyer v. Nebraska - Answers a. the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether state laws
forbidding foreign language instruction in schools violated the federal constitution. State supreme
courts in Nebraska, Iowa, and Ohio had applied precedents to uphold the laws as valid police power
regulations; they served a legitimate public purpose and did not violate any express constitutional
provisions, the courts argued. However, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed and defined a Fourteenth
Amendment constitutional guarantee of individual liberty. According to the court, "That the state may
do much, go very far, indeed, in order to improve the quality of its citizens, physically, mentally and
morally, is clear, but the individual has certain fundamental rights which must be respected." These
"certain fundamental rights" it declined to define with exactness but included "not merely freedom
from bodily restraint but also the right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of the common
occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children, to
worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and generally to enjoy those privileges
long recognized at common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men."
Pierce v. Society of the Sisters in 1925 - Answers U.S. Supreme Court extended its arguments in
Meyer to consider the realm of "fundamental rights" that the Fourteenth Amendment protected.
Asked to consider the constitutionality of Oregon's new law to prohibit private schools, the court
applied the reasoning in Meyer to argue that police powers must not unreasonably interfere with the
rights of individuals. With no evidence that private schools were inherently harmful, the Court argued,
destruction of private schools was an unreasonable abridgement of their property rights. It was also
an invasion of the fundamental rights of parents. The Oregon law "unreasonably interferes with the
liberty of parents and guardians to direct the up-bringing and education of children under their
control." The state did not have the power to "standardize its children by forcing them to accept
instruction from public teachers only," for the "child is not the mere creature of the state" and "those
who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and
prepare him for additional obligations." While it did not define these rights with any precision, the
court argued that there were fundamental inviolate rights of parents protected by the U.S.
Constitution that included at the very least the right [ 150 ] C h a p t e r F o u rto send children to a
private school and instruct them in the family's moral and religious values.
Parens patriae - Answers A legal doctrine that gives the state the authority to act in a child's best
interest. may restrict parents' control by requiring school attendance
National Defense Education Act- - Answers a. 1958 Title III of NDEA provided states matching funds to
strengthen mathematics, science, and foreign language instruction, which included better equipment
and materials, along with professional development for teachers. One goal of NDEA was to increase
the number of citizens who were fluent in foreign languages. NDEA also allowed teachers and
researchers to work together to study the impact of educational media on learning. NDEA awarded
financial aid to capable students who did not have the means to pursue a degree. Additionally, it
provided millions of dollars for purchasing scientific equipment to be used in classrooms across the
country.
NDEA Title II - Answers The student loan program
, Title I - Answers Distribute funding to schools and school districts with high percentage of students
from low-income families.
Title II - Answers The purpose of Title II is to provide supplemental activities that strengthen the
quality and effectiveness of teachers, principals, and other school leaders which includes: ... Provide
low-income and minority students greater access to effective teachers, principals, and other school
leaders.
Title III - Answers The purpose of Title III is to help ensure that English learners, including immigrant
children and youth, attain English proficiency and develop high levels of academic achievement and
assist teachers (including preschool teachers), administrators, and other school leaders in developing
and enhancing their capacity to ...
Title IV - Answers Allocated over $100 million over a five year period to fund educational research
and training.
The purpose of Title IV, Part A funds is to improve students' academic achievement by increasing the
capacity of states, local educational agencies (LEAs), schools, and local communities to: Provide all
students with access to a well-rounded education; Improve school conditions for student learning;
and
Title V - Answers Supplemented grants created under public law 874
Title VI - Answers protects children who are not English proficient from discrimination.
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 PROHIBITS DISCRIMINATION BASED ON RACE, COLOR OR NATIONAL
ORIGIN IN PROGRAMS OR ACTIVITIES WHICH RECEIVE FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE. U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
A nation at risk - Answers Reagan- 1983 National Commission report calling for extensive educational
reforms, including more academic course requirements, more stringent college entrance
requirements, upgraded and updated textbooks, and longer school days and year.
Improving America's Schools Act 1994 - Answers Improving America's schools act. supports schools in
moving all children toward higher academic standards
supports schools in moving all children toward higher academic standards- Clinton
The Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 (IASA) was a major part of the Clinton administration's
efforts to reform education. ... The Title 1 program, providing extra help to disadvantaged students
and holding schools accountable for their results at the same level as other students.
NCLB - Answers Legislation championed by George W. Bush which mandated sanctions against
schools that failed to meet federal performance standards; part of his campaign pledge to end "low
expectations".
No Child Left Behind - 2001 Pres. Bush designed to promote "standards-based education reform" via
assessments that measure progress; results often affect funding and administration control
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) - Answers Obama's act in 2015 that took over No Child Left Behind
Created accountability for state testing.
Plessy v. Ferguson - Answers a 1896 Supreme Court decision which legalized state ordered
segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal
Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) - Answers Supreme Court decision that overturned the Plessy vs.
Ferguson decision (1896); led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court ruled that "separate but equal"
schools for blacks were inherently unequal and thus unconstitutional. The decision energized the Civil
Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.
Charter Schools - Answers Can be Subject to state and federal education legislation
State Statutes - Answers Determine minimum graduation requirements
Sources of Law - Answers common law, statutory law, administrative law
14th Amendment - Answers Declares that all persons born in the U.S. are citizens and are guaranteed
equal protection of the laws
De Jour Segregation - Answers literally "by law" refers to legally enforced practices, such as schools
segregation in the south before the 1960s
De Facto Segregation - Answers Racial segregation that occurs in schools, not as a result of the law,
but as a result of patterns of residential settlement
Segregation Remedies - Answers Magnet schools, rezoning, bussing
Brown II vs Board of Ed - Answers In Brown II, the Court ordered them to integrate their schools "with
all deliberate speed."
The Common School Movement - Answers 1830's: american families could not afford to pay for
education. Horace mann and Henry Barnard made it possible for common schools to establish
themselves as the first public schools in the nation
Common Schools - Answers primary schools and taught rudiments
Massachusetts Law of 1827 - Answers prohibited the use or purchase of school books that favor any
particular religion
Compulsory Attendance Act of 1852 - Answers children between the ages of 8 and 14 must attend
school for twelve weeks per year, six of which had to be consecutive. This law was weakly enforced
but initiated a number of court cases confirming that states have the authority to mandate school
attendance
Commonwealth v. Gillen - Answers Gillen's unwillingness to comply with the vaccination rule did not
exempt him from attendance requirements and that the instruction in the home did not meet the
statutory requirement that alternatives to the public school be by a "properly qualified private tutor"
and "satisfactory to the proper county or district superintendent of schools." Without the money to
hire a tutor, Gillen had no other choice but to vaccinate his children or move to another state with
less stringent laws.
1923 case Meyer v. Nebraska - Answers a. the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether state laws
forbidding foreign language instruction in schools violated the federal constitution. State supreme
courts in Nebraska, Iowa, and Ohio had applied precedents to uphold the laws as valid police power
regulations; they served a legitimate public purpose and did not violate any express constitutional
provisions, the courts argued. However, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed and defined a Fourteenth
Amendment constitutional guarantee of individual liberty. According to the court, "That the state may
do much, go very far, indeed, in order to improve the quality of its citizens, physically, mentally and
morally, is clear, but the individual has certain fundamental rights which must be respected." These
"certain fundamental rights" it declined to define with exactness but included "not merely freedom
from bodily restraint but also the right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of the common
occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children, to
worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and generally to enjoy those privileges
long recognized at common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men."
Pierce v. Society of the Sisters in 1925 - Answers U.S. Supreme Court extended its arguments in
Meyer to consider the realm of "fundamental rights" that the Fourteenth Amendment protected.
Asked to consider the constitutionality of Oregon's new law to prohibit private schools, the court
applied the reasoning in Meyer to argue that police powers must not unreasonably interfere with the
rights of individuals. With no evidence that private schools were inherently harmful, the Court argued,
destruction of private schools was an unreasonable abridgement of their property rights. It was also
an invasion of the fundamental rights of parents. The Oregon law "unreasonably interferes with the
liberty of parents and guardians to direct the up-bringing and education of children under their
control." The state did not have the power to "standardize its children by forcing them to accept
instruction from public teachers only," for the "child is not the mere creature of the state" and "those
who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and
prepare him for additional obligations." While it did not define these rights with any precision, the
court argued that there were fundamental inviolate rights of parents protected by the U.S.
Constitution that included at the very least the right [ 150 ] C h a p t e r F o u rto send children to a
private school and instruct them in the family's moral and religious values.
Parens patriae - Answers A legal doctrine that gives the state the authority to act in a child's best
interest. may restrict parents' control by requiring school attendance
National Defense Education Act- - Answers a. 1958 Title III of NDEA provided states matching funds to
strengthen mathematics, science, and foreign language instruction, which included better equipment
and materials, along with professional development for teachers. One goal of NDEA was to increase
the number of citizens who were fluent in foreign languages. NDEA also allowed teachers and
researchers to work together to study the impact of educational media on learning. NDEA awarded
financial aid to capable students who did not have the means to pursue a degree. Additionally, it
provided millions of dollars for purchasing scientific equipment to be used in classrooms across the
country.
NDEA Title II - Answers The student loan program
, Title I - Answers Distribute funding to schools and school districts with high percentage of students
from low-income families.
Title II - Answers The purpose of Title II is to provide supplemental activities that strengthen the
quality and effectiveness of teachers, principals, and other school leaders which includes: ... Provide
low-income and minority students greater access to effective teachers, principals, and other school
leaders.
Title III - Answers The purpose of Title III is to help ensure that English learners, including immigrant
children and youth, attain English proficiency and develop high levels of academic achievement and
assist teachers (including preschool teachers), administrators, and other school leaders in developing
and enhancing their capacity to ...
Title IV - Answers Allocated over $100 million over a five year period to fund educational research
and training.
The purpose of Title IV, Part A funds is to improve students' academic achievement by increasing the
capacity of states, local educational agencies (LEAs), schools, and local communities to: Provide all
students with access to a well-rounded education; Improve school conditions for student learning;
and
Title V - Answers Supplemented grants created under public law 874
Title VI - Answers protects children who are not English proficient from discrimination.
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 PROHIBITS DISCRIMINATION BASED ON RACE, COLOR OR NATIONAL
ORIGIN IN PROGRAMS OR ACTIVITIES WHICH RECEIVE FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE. U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
A nation at risk - Answers Reagan- 1983 National Commission report calling for extensive educational
reforms, including more academic course requirements, more stringent college entrance
requirements, upgraded and updated textbooks, and longer school days and year.
Improving America's Schools Act 1994 - Answers Improving America's schools act. supports schools in
moving all children toward higher academic standards
supports schools in moving all children toward higher academic standards- Clinton
The Improving America's Schools Act of 1994 (IASA) was a major part of the Clinton administration's
efforts to reform education. ... The Title 1 program, providing extra help to disadvantaged students
and holding schools accountable for their results at the same level as other students.
NCLB - Answers Legislation championed by George W. Bush which mandated sanctions against
schools that failed to meet federal performance standards; part of his campaign pledge to end "low
expectations".
No Child Left Behind - 2001 Pres. Bush designed to promote "standards-based education reform" via
assessments that measure progress; results often affect funding and administration control
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) - Answers Obama's act in 2015 that took over No Child Left Behind
Created accountability for state testing.
Plessy v. Ferguson - Answers a 1896 Supreme Court decision which legalized state ordered
segregation so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal
Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) - Answers Supreme Court decision that overturned the Plessy vs.
Ferguson decision (1896); led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court ruled that "separate but equal"
schools for blacks were inherently unequal and thus unconstitutional. The decision energized the Civil
Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.
Charter Schools - Answers Can be Subject to state and federal education legislation
State Statutes - Answers Determine minimum graduation requirements
Sources of Law - Answers common law, statutory law, administrative law
14th Amendment - Answers Declares that all persons born in the U.S. are citizens and are guaranteed
equal protection of the laws
De Jour Segregation - Answers literally "by law" refers to legally enforced practices, such as schools
segregation in the south before the 1960s
De Facto Segregation - Answers Racial segregation that occurs in schools, not as a result of the law,
but as a result of patterns of residential settlement
Segregation Remedies - Answers Magnet schools, rezoning, bussing
Brown II vs Board of Ed - Answers In Brown II, the Court ordered them to integrate their schools "with
all deliberate speed."
