13
process rights among public school students. After this time, between 1976 and 1992, there was
a post-contestation period with a relatively stable but slowly rising average of 40 per year.
Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. By 1993, the number of
student/school conflicts over discipline reaching state and federal appellate courts rose to 60.
Between 1992 and 2002, there was an average of 76 school discipline cases per year, with a peak
of 119 in 2000.
Figure 1: Number of School Discipline Cases, 1960-2002
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
1990: Am ericans
with Disabilities Act
1994: Gun Free
Schools Act
1997: Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act
Figures 2-5 present the type of misbehavior at issue in school discipline court cases
during each of four time periods: the pre-contestation period (1960-1967), the student rights
contestation period (1968-1975), the post-contestation period (1976-1992), and the
rationalization/rights contestation period (1992-2002). For this brief presentation of the results,
we focus only on the percent of cases during each time period that involve zero tolerance issues
(drugs, alcohol, violence or weapons). As Figure 2 illustrates, between 1960-1967, prior to the
Convention