Janet Decker

I am an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of Education Policy and Law at Indiana University. In this role, I also help coordinate the Education Law Certificate, Undergrad Education Policy Minor, J.D. Education Policy Minor, Ed.D. Education Law Minor, Ph.D. Education Law Minor, and Martha McCarthy Education Law and Policy Institute.

My research areas include special education legal and policy issues and legal literacy of school employees. 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). Currently, I am co-authoring the 9^th ed. of The Legal Rights of School Leaders, Teachers, and Students (Pearson, 2026).

As a legal columnist for NASSP’s Principal Leadership and a contributor to Understood’s Expert Network, I strive to ensure legal information is accessible by providing public scholarship. My research has also appeared in Journal of Disability Policy Studies, American Journal of Education, West’s Education Law Reporter, Peabody Journal of Education, Teaching Exceptional Children, 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, IU’s Center for Evaluation and Education Policy, and the University of Cincinnati. I was elected to the Education Law Association’s Board of Directors (2016-19) and continue to serve on a variety of national editorial boards and committees.

Currently, I teach these school law courses to undergraduate, certificate, 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 (2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2021) and Burton W. Gorman Distinguished Teaching Award (2025). I am accepting Ph.D. student advisees with research interests in P-12 education law and policy.