This hot topics panel will review cases, statutes, and legal dilemmas that have been issues in public schools within the last year relevant to the conference theme of marginality and mattering. For example, in 2023, we will have U.S. Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action and special education. At the same time, circuits have decided pressing issues related to LGBTQ+ rights and special education in schools and challenges to the new content restriction and parents’ rights laws are pending in state and federal courts. We intend for our panel to be interactive with the audience and believe that the discussion will have important implications for school administrators, attorneys, professors, and policymakers.