Report Overview
In October 2026 I surveyed 130 New Jersey high school
students about their legal rights. Instead of asking
civics-class questions, I gave them six realistic situations,
like a principal asking to search a phone, a police officer
asking to look in a backpack, or a post made from home ending
up in the main office, and asked what the law actually allows.
I also asked how confident students feel about their rights,
where they would go for help, and whether school is teaching
them enough. The full report breaks down every question, what
students got right and wrong, and what the law really says.
Findings
- Students answered an average of 42% of the six scenarios correctly.
- 45% believe a school needs a warrant to search a student's phone. It doesn't.
- Students did best on the civics-style question (65% knew the Constitution is hardest to change) and worst on the real-life ones (24% on phone searches, 29% on off-campus speech).
- On the search questions, most students didn't say "not sure." They picked a confident wrong answer.
- Confidence is low. The average was 2.9 out of 5, and only 6% feel very confident they understand their rights.
- A third of students would start with an internet search if they had a legal problem. Only 8% would go to a school official.
- 82% say high schools should teach legal rights, and 66% say they currently don't get enough.
Report PDF
Read the full survey report, including question-by-question
results and legal analysis.
Open the full report PDF