TILS Standard C

6: Takes action to improve self-practice based on multiple sources of feedback, including

performance evaluation results and self reflection
Jasmine Farrow
EDAS 5810
Law Summary
For my topic I choose to research due process. I chose this topic because I am very
interested in the steps that happen after a tenured teacher is dismissed. In my 7 years of teaching,
I have never known an administrator to fire a tenured teacher. As a future principal, I would
like to gain as much information as possible on teacher rights and what I am legally responsible
for offering a teacher if I have to fire someone.
Summary of key points:

A school must show cause in order to dismiss a teacher who has attained tenure status.

The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, like its counterpart in the Fifth
Amendment, provides that no state may "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law." (1)

This clause applies to public school districts and provides the minimum procedural
requirements that each public school district must satisfy when dismissing a teacher who
has attained tenure. (1)

Due process does not prescribe the reasons why a teacher may be dismissed, but rather it
prescribes the procedures a school must follow to dismiss a teacher. (2)

Many state statutory provisions for dismissing a teacher actually exceed the minimum
requirements under the Due Process Clause. (2)

Important Due Process Cases:

Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564 (1972)

Case decided by the United States Supreme Court concerning alleged discrimination
against a non-tenured teacher at Wisconsin State University in Oshkosh. (1)

Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill, 470 U.S. 532 (1985)

United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that certain public-sector
employees can have a property interest in their employment, per Constitutional Due
Process. (1)

Hamilton County Department of Education Board Policy:

Descriptor Terms: Public Hearings

Descriptor Code: 1.401

The Board may hold public hearings in the following circumstances:

1. When an employee is dismissed during a contract period. Any employee of the Board, professional
and non-professional, is entitled to a hearing, upon written request, and shall be advised of the same
in the event of a dismissal; 1 (3)

4. When a hearing is required by a statute, rule, regulation contract; and/or any individual(s)
requesting a hearing before the Board will make such request in writing stating the purpose of
the hearing, the action desired, and, in the case of contesting a school assignment, the specific
reasons for requesting the transfer. All requests for hearings must be received by the Board or
director of schools within the time limit prescribed by law for that category of hearing. (3)

Resources
1-FindLaw | Cases and Codes. (2015, January 1). Retrieved March 18, 2015, from
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=470&invol=532
2-Glink, S. (2011, January 1). Teacher and School Staff Rights. Retrieved March 7, 2015, from
http://www.educationrights.com/teacherrights.php

3-Hamilton County Department of Education Board Policy. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2015,
from http://www.hcde.org/Download.asp?L=2&LMID=649112&PN=DocumentUploads&Divi
sionID=14291&DepartmentID=15620&SubDepartmentID=&SubP=&Act=Download&T
=2&I=68241