Significant changes in United States culture during the past 25 years and court decisions resulting from legal suits challenging traditional educational procedures have made the future course of education very unpredictable. The social unrest of the 1960s brought about innovations such as open classrooms and nongrading systems in the wake of increasing awareness of ethnic and disadvantaged groups and individual rights. During the 1970s increased government legislation to ensure individual rights and equal opportunities resulted in "A Bill of Rights for Children" ensuring protection under the law. Many precedent-setting court cases have maintained that students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door in cases of suspension or discipline. While the courts recognize the right of schools to maintain order, they will intervene where students have been denied constitutional rights of due process, freedom of speech, or the right to privacy. In the 1980s, educators need to be aware of the prominence of the children's rights issue and the implications that may arise from cases where schools are held liable for the academic failure of individual students. (HTH)