Janet Decker

I am an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of Education Policy and Law at Indiana University. I also coordinate the Education Law Certificate, J.D. Education Policy Minor, and Martha McCarthy Education Law and Policy Institute.

My research areas include special education legal and policy issues and legal literacy of school leaders and educators. I’ve published two books: The Legal Rights of School Leaders, Teachers, and Students, 8th ed. (Pearson, 2019) and How to Prevent Special Education Litigation: Eight Legal Lesson Plans (Columbia University Teachers College Press, 2015) and two edited books: The Principal's Legal Handbook  and A Guide to Special Education Law (both published by Education Law Association, 2017).

As a legal columnist for NASSP’s Principal Leadership, I’m especially interested in public scholarship and ensuring legal information is accessible to educators. My research has also appeared in Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy, West’s Education Law Reporter, American Journal of Education, Vanderbilt University's Peabody Journal of Education, Teaching Exceptional Children, BYU Education and Law Journal, and Utah Law Review, among other publication outlets.

I became interested in special education policy when I was a teacher and behavioral consultant for students with autism. Discovering that systemic inequities often led to problematic litigation motivated me to earn a law degree from IU's Maurer School of Law and Ph.D. in Education Policy Studies from IU's School of Education. I also worked at Maurer's Family and Children Mediation Clinic, the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy, and the University of Cincinnati. From 2016-19, I served on the Education Law Association’s Board of Directors and continue to serve on a variety of national editorial boards and committees.

I am accepting Ph.D. student advisees with research interests that align with mine (i.e., PK-12 education law). Currently, I teach these school law courses to undergraduate, master's, doctoral, and law students: A308, A608, and A675. In 2022, I was inducted into IU’s Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching (FACET) and have received teaching awards including IU’s Trustees Teaching Award.