Legal Question in Education Law in New York

Legality of Summer Assignments

At our school, we are given "Mandatory" assignments by teachers that need to be completed and submitted over the summer. My question is about whether these assignments are legal, specifically in a public High School in New York. There has been one time when this topic has been brought up, which has not been made public to the students in which the principal had agreed with the argument posed by a concerned parent that this work was imposing on his childs vacation, and that teachers have no right to place the responsibility of work on students during there time off from school. This student chose to complete the assignments anyway, for the educational value, saying that it was only a matter of principle, that students should not be forced to do these assignments and be told that they are mandatory, while obviously they can be worked around. It is not right that teachers are working on the ignorance of students knowledge of the law and telling them that assignments must be done when apparently they have no legal backing to do so. Any Help here would be greatly appreciated. The sooner the better seeing that this issues deals with the summer. Thank You once again.


Asked on 7/24/00, 12:16 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
David Wright Law Offices of David Wright

Re: Legality of Summer Assignments

It's hard to believe, but NY actually has a statute which imposes a maximum number of days on the school year, something like 185 days. It's in the Education Law available in any large public library. It comes from the days when country folk needed their kids to work in the fields during the summer, and they didn't want the city kids getting a leg up. Certainly sounds like the teacher's assignments are illegal . . . but I would love it if our school's teachers did it!

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Answered on 9/19/00, 8:05 am


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