Ed. Note: The School to Prison Pipeline exists because there is no due process for our youth and low-socio-economic sector families. Special Education Due Process is a FARCE. Legal Abuse Syndrome, here we are! kps

The Importance of Due Process in American Schools

May 31, 2011 2:10 am

Author: Matthew Lynch contributor EducationNews.org Matthew Lynch - The underlying idea behind practicing and attaching appropriate importance to procedural due process is to ensure that individual students, as well as teachers, are not unnecessarily burdened with arbitrary actions against them by any institution or individual

Due process in education means that fairness should be rendered in all areas, and that the teacher’s or student’s rights as individuals should under no circumstances be violated. Due process is important in the sense that most court decisions regarding teachers, education, and ethical teaching pertain to the fundamental issue of fairness. All protections and rights pertaining to due process actually emerge from 2 amendments of the U.S constitution, listed below:

The Fifth Amendment, which states that “no person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”; and
The Fourteenth Amendment, which asserts that “the equal protection of the law” ought not to be denied to any individual and “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
Typically, due process that is appropriated in the judging of the fairness of an action can be classified under two broad headings, namely:

Substantive due process that deals with the issue per se.
Procedural due process which delves into the fairness of the process that is appropriated in delivering justice.
For instance, if a teacher was dismissed from his or her duties for treating a child in a particular manner that the child’s parents were not pleased about, an issue of substantive due process is raised. The court’s decision will be based on whether or not the teacher’s actions fell within the lawful bounds of ethical teaching.

Procedural due process, on the other hand, would involve the circumstances and the manner in which the case was handled. Issues such as whether or not the teacher received a fair chance to present his or her side of the story in defense, and given an opportunity to question the evidence provided against him or her come into play here. Procedural due process is actually a broader term and its meaning changes from state to state, depending upon the region-specific laws and regulations. To understand this concept, let’s have a look at the court verdict in Goldberg v. Kelly (1970), which included the following account of the minimum procedural safeguards demanded by basic due process:

The provision of an opportunity to be heard, and the date and time for which this opportunity should be provided to the concerned individual well ahead of time.
A full detailed account of the reasons for the proposed suspension must be furnished well in advance.
The opportunity for the accused employee to defend him or herself, and to question the evidence provided against him or her ought to be provided.
He or she must, under no circumstance, be deprived of the opportunity to retain an attorney.
A chance has to be given to the individual to cross-examine the witnesses present.
It is compulsory that the decision reached must strictly rest on legal rules and laws and on the evidence presented at the hearing.
The decision making body must be impartial and unbiased (Cambron-McCabe et al., 2004).
The underlying idea behind practicing and attaching appropriate importance to procedural due process is to ensure that individual students, as well as teachers, are not unnecessarily burdened with arbitrary actions against them by any institution or individual.

Matthew Lynch is an Assistant Professor of Education at Widener University.
He may be contacted at mlynch@mail.widener.edu