Views about corporal punishment in schools are changing. Some seek a return to accountability, authority, and increased order in schools, while others seek to make schools a sanctuary from social violence, especially violence against children. Local school boards often are criticized as being too lenient or too severe, and more state legislatures are reassessing laws governing corporal punishment. Legal, educational, and social issues surround the use of corporal punishment. Discretion on corporal punishment is usually left up to local school boards, since federal courts and statutes provide little guidance on the subject and states often only give parameters within which schools must operate. This monograph examines the themes that form corporal-punishment policy and the laws that govern its implementation. Part I introduces the major legal, social, and educational themes that surround corporal punishment, and the constitutional challenges to corporal punishment. Part II offers an approach for analyzing regulatory language. It examines definitional problems and questions that arise concerning separate issues as corporal-punishment policy is codified. A state-by-state list of applicable state statutes and selected cases is included. (JPT)