This primer on legal issues and responsibilities, prepared for independent schools, provides a reference for staff, administrators, and trustees in recognizing and preventing legal problems. Legal issues surrounding the roles of trustees, school head, faculty, and students are noted, including school accountability to educate, the relationship between school head and faculty, credentials and evaluation of faculty, and implications of due process rights of students. Chapters also focus on preventing physical injury suits in athletic programs, accurate and just admissions procedures (including school responsibility in granting financial aid), and crucial areas in recording and reporting business transactions by nonprofit institutions. Two short chapters on the necessary qualities of school development officers and on a school's responsibility to its municipality look at the independent school within its relevant communities. Two appendixes provide a glossary of legal terms and an index to legislative memoranda published by the National Association of Independent Schools. (JW)