20 U.S.C. § 6733
Section 6733 · Definitions
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case Patton v. Bickford (2016)
Most recently applied in Patton v. Bickford (April 2016)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
For purposes of this subpart:
(1) Economic loss
The term “economic loss” means any pecuniary loss resulting from harm (including the loss of earnings or other benefits related to employment, medical expense loss, replacement services loss, loss due to death, burial costs, and loss of business or employment opportunities) to the extent recovery for such loss is allowed under applicable State law.
(2) Harm
The term “harm” includes physical, nonphysical, economic, and noneconomic losses.
(3) Noneconomic loss
The term “noneconomic loss” means loss for physical or emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, mental anguish, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of society or companionship, loss of consortium (other than loss of domestic service), hedonic damages, injury to reputation, or any other nonpecuniary loss of any kind or nature.
(4) School
The term “school” means a public or private kindergarten, a public or private elementary school or secondary school, or a home school.
(5) State
The term “State” means each of the several States of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, any other territory or possession of the United States, or any political subdivision of any such State, territory, or possession.
(6) Teacher
The term “teacher” means—
(A) a teacher, instructor, principal, or administrator;
(B) another educational professional who works in a school;
(C) a professional or nonprofessional employee who—
(i) works in a school; and
(ii)(I) in the employee's job, maintains discipline or ensures safety; or
(II) in an emergency, is called on to maintain discipline or ensure safety; or
(D) an individual member of a school board (as distinct from the board).