0.2 Arizona school law review: chapter 2a  (Page 11/10)

Chapter 2a: state board of education laws (15-205 through 15-239) and arizona revised statutes other than title xv that affect education (ars 1 through ars 46)

Arizona Education law is found in many places. The place where most Arizona Educators expect to find school law is in Arizona Revised Statutes, Title XV. The majority of the laws that impact our public schools are included in these statutes. However, Arizona school law is found in many other places. One of those places is the Arizona Constitution. Indeed, Arizona schools are established by the Arizona Constitution. The constitution reads:

Arizona State Constitution: Section 20 of Enabling Act: “That provision shall be made for the establishment and maintenance of a system of public schools which shall be open to all the children of said State and free from sectarian control; and that said schools shall always be conducted in English.

Section 27: That five per centum of the proceeds of sales of public lands shall be sold and shall be paid to the said state to be used as a permanent inviolable fund, the interest of which only shall be expended for the support of the common schools within the state.

Declaration of rights:

In addition to the actual provisions of the constitution, there have been Judicial Rulings that impact public education: For example, in 1972, there was a ruling from the Arizona Supreme Court which was echoed in a later U.S. Supreme Court case: Tinker V. Des Moines: “A student does not lose the protection of the constitution when he enters the schoolyard: Pendly V. Mingus Union High School Dist. No 4 (1972) 109 Ariz. 18, 504 P.2d919.

This same Arizona Supreme Court case did not extend constitutional rights to all aspects of the long-haired, “hippy” generation of the late 1960’s and 1970’s.

The right to wear long hair is not a fundamental right falling with penumbra of guarantees of the Bill of Rights. Pendley V. Mingus Union etc 109 Ariz. 18, 504 P.2d919”

All of these court decisions and instructions for public schools, including the various court rulings are found in any copy of the Arizona Constitution. I found this ruling particularly interesting in light of the current legislative sentiment to allow private, home school and charter school students a great deal of access to public school services:

“If a child voluntarily chooses to attend a private school, the Ariz. Constitution does not require that he be allowed to attend the public schools on a part-time basis for the purpose of taking selected courses. However, a public school may voluntarily accept pupils from private and parochial schools for any portion of the day.” These rulings are just a small sample of the requirements and rulings concerning the constitution.

The main focus of the Arizona Education Law review is the statutes that are included in the Arizona Revised Statutes. This section includes a small section of statutes that focus on the Arizona Department of Education and all other statutes that are Arizona Revised Statutes but not included in ARS Title 15.