Surveys in America’s Classrooms: How Much do Parents Really Know?
Surveys in America’s Classrooms: How Much do Parents Really Know?
Tara Dahl, 37 J.L. & Educ. 143 (2008)
One could hardly argue that when parents drop their children off for football practice, day care, or summer camp they are surrendering all of their parental rights to the coach, the babysitter, or the camp counselor. When a parent leaves a child with the babysitter, generally the parent provides instructions as to what the child can and cannot do, eat, watch, and so forth. A parent is temporarily yielding authority over the child to the babysitter while maintaining the ability to give instructions regarding the care of the child. This is the doctrine of in loco parentis. Schools often confuse this doctrine with that of parens patriae, a doctrine involving the permanent relinquishment of parental authority to the government, often against the parent’s wishes.
In an opinion that resoundingly favored a school board’s rights over parental rights, the Ninth Circuit applied the doctrine of parens patriae in the school setting. The effect of the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Fields v. Palmdale was a virtual relinquishment of a parent’s ability to have a voice in what his or her child would be exposed to during the course of the school day, regardless of whether the information was a part of the curriculum.