In recent years, both the legal profession and law enforcement agencies throughout the United States have noted with concern a lack of respect for law on the part of youthful Americans. The rising incidence of youthful involvement in crime testifies to this lack of respect. It also suggests that this attitude may stem in part from lack of knowledge of the law.

It has become increasingly clear that many public school students have a lack of understanding of why law is essential to the functions of a democratic society. At a time in our history when great emphasis is placed on individual rights, we have discovered that many young people do not possess a comprehensive understanding of what rights they possess. More significantly, it is apparent that young people and adults alike fail to consider that if they have rights under the law they also have responsibilities.

This emphasis on rights which are not fully understood and responsibilities which are ignored has led lawyers and educators in many parts of the nation to advocate and devise programs in law-related education at all grade levels of the public schools. Many of these programs have been successful and have become an integral part of the educational program in a number of states.

In February of 1974, the Board of Education recognized the growing interest in law-related education and approved a recommendation of the Superintendent of Public Instruction that a committee consisting of teachers, administrators, and members of the legal profession be appointed to study this matter and submit a plan for giving appropriate emphasis to this area of instruction.

In Virginia, some exploratory efforts at law-related education have been undertaken on the initiative of individual school systems and representatives of the legal profession. In the City of Richmond, for example, the Young Lawyers Section of the Virginia Bar Association conducted a pilot project in three of the city's middle schools. That 1973 pilot project, which was planned and developed in cooperation with the Richmond City School System and the Office of the Attorney General, will be expanded.

The Virginia State Bar has been involved in promoting the development of law-related education in Virginia's public schools since 1967. In the summer of 1973, the State Bar Younger Members Conference took over this State Bar project and appointed a Law-Related Education Project Committee. Utilizing a grant from the Division of Criminal Justice and Crime Prevention, this committee, with the Youth Education for Citizenship Committee of the American Bar Association, cosponsored a Regional Conference on Law-Related Education on May 3-4, 1974, which was attended by more than 50 Virginia educators and lawyers. A number of the conferees served on the Committee to Study and Report on Senate Joint Resolution No. 66.

The State Bar Committee has developed a course outline and materials which are being used in a law-related education course in a high school in Chesterfield County, with plans to expand to other county schools in 1975. The Committee also has been working in other school divisions in the State in the area of materials, visiting attorney-speakers, and law-related education planning and programming.

A law-related program has been established by the Alexandria City Public Schools. "Justice and Law: A Study in Rights and Responsibilities," was a project which enlisted the aid of not only members of the Bar but professional law enforcement officers to supplement the work of classroom teachers in Alexandria. other Virginia localities have instituted law-related education programs in varying degrees in recent years. Law-related studies have been part of various programs from kindergarten through grade twelve. An in-depth study of law is included presently in the required course, Virginia and United States Government.

The General Assembly in March of 1974 approved Senate Joint Resolution No. 66, introduced by Senators F. T. Gray of Chesterfield, James T. Edmonds of Kenbridge, Paul Mann of Bowling Green, and Stanley C. Walker of Norfolk. Senate Joint Resolution No. 66 directed the State Department of Education to study the need for a course of instruction in the public schools to inform young Virginians of their legal responsibilities and relationships.