Know Your Rights: Legal Protections in K-12
Key Principles
Teachers may not promote personal viewpoints in the classroom.
Students have a right to a safe, inclusive environment conducive to learning.
The following laws and policies support the above principles. While the state-specific laws apply to California, all states have similar guidelines and support the same principles.
1. Teachers may not promote personal viewpoints in the classroom.
In the classroom, teachers act as the government’s representatives and may not promote their personal opinions, whether through instruction, assignments, or resources.
AB 715: “Teacher instruction shall be factually accurate and align with the adopted curriculum … rather than advocacy, personal opinion, bias, or partisanship.”
Federal district court decisions confirm that teachers may not promote their own viewpoints in the classroom.
“[A teacher] speaks not as an individual, but as a public employee, and the school district is free to “take legitimate and appropriate steps to ensure that its message is neither garbled nor distorted.” Rosenberger v. Rector & Visitors of the Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819, 833 (1995)
“We hold that when public employees make statements pursuant to their official duties, the employees are not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes…”Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410, 421 (2006)
California confirms these restrictions further in Education Codes and Board Policies
-
Education Code § 60045: “(a) All instructional materials adopted by any governing board for use in the schools shall be, to the satisfaction of the governing board, accurate, objective, and current and suited to the needs and comprehension of pupils at their respective grade levels.”
Education Code § 49091.12(a) students “may not be compelled to affirm or disavow any particular personally or privately held world view, religious doctrine, or political opinion.”
Almost all California districts have adopted Board Policy (BP) 6144:
“In the classroom, teachers act on behalf of the district and are expected to follow the adopted curriculum. In leading or guiding class discussions about issues that may be controversial, a teacher may not advocate his/her personal opinion or viewpoint.”
“Instruction shall be presented in a balanced manner, addressing all sides of the issue without bias or prejudice and without promoting any particular point of view….”
“Adequate factual information shall be provided to help students objectively analyze and evaluate the issue and draw their own conclusions.”
Though almost all school districts follow the above policy, the wording can differ slightly and is available on the district website.
Case Law (US Supreme Court)
The Supreme Court has long held that Districts have a responsibility to regulate teachers'speech and classroom instruction. The State and Districts have an obligation to ensure that instruction serves the educational and social interests of students.“We have noted that secondary school teachers occupy a unique position for influencing secondary school students, thus creating a concomitant power in school authorities to choose the teachers and regulate their pedagogical methods. Id. "The State exerts great authority and coercive power through mandatory attendance requirements, and because of the students' emulation of teachers as role models and the children's susceptibility to peer pressure." Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. at 584 as cited in Webster, 917 F.2d 1004
“There is a compelling state interest in the choice and adherence to a suitable curriculum for the benefit of our young citizens and society. It cannot be left to individual teachers to teach what they please.” Palmer v. Board of Educ.444 U.S. 1026 as cited in Webster, 917 F.2d 1004
“[A teacher] speaks not as an individual, but as a public employee, and the school district is free to “take legitimate and appropriate steps to ensure that its message is neither garbled nor distorted.” Rosenberger v. Rector & Visitors of the Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819, 833 (1995)
“[S]peech by teachers around students in school-related settings necessarily constitutes government speech…” Johnson v. Poway 658 F.3d 954 The majority opinion wrote, “When Bradley Johnson … performs the duties he is paid to perform, he speaks not as an individual, but as a public employee…”
2. Students have a right to a safe, inclusive environment conducive to learning.
Classroom signage, flags (when not directly related to curriculum), and teacher apparel can all be examples of advocacy and are part of the school environment. These elements, as well as peer interactions within the classroom, are all subject to the below laws, which require the districts to protect the students’ rights to a hostile-free environment.
The California Department of Education (CDE) relied on Educational Codes, noted below, when responding to a 2025 case of a teacher promoting anti-Israel viewpoints in the classroom, wearing “Free Palestine” clothing, and hanging such signs in the classroom. The CDE assessed that:
“[T]he Teacher’s communications (involving Free Palestine speech and paraphernalia) were blatantly polemical, presenting the views of only one side of a highly complex and controversial conflict. Whether intended or not, it was entirely foreseeable that students of Jewish identity, and/or Israeli origin or cultural affiliation would experience distress, as a consequence of the Teacher’s one-sided political advocacy, that could reasonably impact on their education in ways that differed from their peers who did not share the same racial, ethnic or cultural background and beliefs. ”
Education Code § 201 requires schools to provide an educational environment “free from discrimination and harassment.”
Education Code § 51101: (7) provides that parents “have a school environment for their child that is safe and supportive of learning.”
AB 715 affirms that classroom materials can be, in and of themselves, discriminatory. Representatives of the targeted group do NOT need to be present in the class nor do they need to show personal harm. "Discriminatory bias…. does not require a showing of direct harm.... Members of a protected group do not need to be present while the discriminatory bias is occurring for the act to be considered discriminatory bias.”
Any individual who witnesses discriminatory bias can file a complaint, anonymously if desired.
-
AB 715 provides that these provisions apply to “any textbook, instructional material, supplemental instructional material, professional development materials, or curriculum for classroom instruction.”
Education Code § 220 prohibits any discrimination in schools “on the basis of race, national origin, ethnic group identification, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability.” (also Education Codes §§ 51500, 51501 for textbooks)
Education Code § 51500 “A teacher shall not give instruction and a school district shall not sponsor any activity that promotes a discriminatory bias on the basis of race or ethnicity, gender, religion, disability, nationality, or sexual orientation, or because of a characteristic listed in Section 220.”