By Attorney Thomas B. Mooney, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut

The “Legal Question of the Week” is a regular feature of the CAS Weekly NewsBlast. We invite readers to submit short, law-related questions of practical concern to school administrators. Each week, we will select a question and publish an answer. While these answers cannot be considered formal legal advice, they may be of help to you and your colleagues. We may edit your questions, and we will not identify the authors. Please submit your questions to: legalmailbagcasciacorg. _________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Legal Mailbag:
As an assistant principal at a high school, I am responsible for keeping the inventory of school property. At the end of each school year, it is a royal pain to get back from students textbooks, library books and other school equipment that they have taken over the course of the year. When teachers ask them to return books that they have borrowed, most students usually promise to bring the book right back the next day. But then they forget, and even when the teachers nag, about one-third of the students just don’t follow through. And with sports equipment, the situation is even worse. Maybe the students want to keep their jerseys as keepsakes, and the return rate is only about fifty percent.

This year I want to get serious. Really serious. I want to warn students now that they will not be allowed to graduate at the end of the year until they either return any school books and equipment that they have or pay for it. I also want to warn them that we will not send out transcripts or report cards until they are all caught up with us. That should get their attention! Only one question – is it legal?

Signed,
Getting Tough on Crime

Dear Tough:

Yes. At least for the most part. Your plan to withhold transcripts, report cards and grades from students who have not returned schoolbooks or equipment is authorized by statute. Connecticut General Statutes Section 10-221(c) specifically provides:
(c) Boards of education may prescribe rules to impose sanctions against pupils who damage or fail to return textbooks, library materials or other educational materials. Said boards may charge pupils for such damaged or lost textbooks, library materials or other educational materials and may withhold grades, transcripts or report cards until the pupil pays for or returns the textbook, library book or other educational material.

Given this statutory authority, it is clear that you can require return of or payment for “textbooks, library materials or other educational materials” as you propose. Moreover, here we will presume that football jerseys and the like are “educational materials” subject to the same rules. I also want to congratulate you on your plan to warn students ahead of time so that they clearly understand the rules and will not be able later to question the consequences of not returning textbooks, library books or other educational material.

The only question I have about your plan relates to graduation. Clearly, participation in the graduation exercise is a privilege, and you may require that students be square with the school before they are permitted to participate in the exercise. However, the statute does not specify that school officials can prohibit a student from graduating per se because he/she owes the districts school books or equipment. However, that uncertainty may be unimportant, because graduating high school is not much good if you cannot get a transcript to show for it.