Educational Malpractice and Setting Damages for Ineffective Teaching: A Comparison of Legal Principles in the U.S. A., England and Australia

The extent to which educational institutions and their teachers in the USA, England, and Australia should bear legal responsibility in damages for ineffective classroom teaching is the subject of this article. At the heart of the controversy regarding educational malpractice is the issue of remedies. Federal and state courts in the USA have resisted awarding damages where such an award would appear to sound in educational malpractice. However, although courts in Australia have yet to declare with any degree of certainty, they appear positioned to follow the English approach that ostensibly acknowledges a school's duty of care to provide effective education for all children.