Chapter 4 of a book on school law, this chapter focuses on 1979 cases involving students. The author notes that in 1979 most unresolved legal issues in this area involved handicapped children. He finds disagreement among the holdings in these cases about the limits of a district's responsibility to provide special services to the handicapped. It is noted that the Supreme Court rendered several significant decisions in 1979 cases dealing with school desegregation. According to the author, decisions in "Dayton II" and "Columbus" made it clear that the Court was not backing away from approving plans involving substantial busing. In other desegregation cases, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals continued last year's trend by becoming more like the other circuits in desegregation decisions. Two new patterns in pupil cases are seen: one regarding cases involving both student testing and bilingual-bicultural programming, and one regarding cases involving athletic association and school sports. It is observed that many sex discrimination charges were raised in 1979. Cases in this chapter are organized under the headings of handicapped and exceptional children, public school assignment, tuition and transportation, bilingual-bicultural programs, private and parochial schools, school sports, substantive rights of students, sanctions for student misconduct, testing and placement, and desegregation. (Author/JM)