Yeah, but it's almost entirely meant to be used in situations where the actual parent or parents are dead or unable to act. So, the school thing would be used if say, little Timmy was off at boarding school and had appendicitis while the parents were out of the country. The school could act in loco parentis and authorize emergency surgery. Or the non-biological parents would be used if mom had died and dad had remarried, but then died before they ever got around to signing adoption papers so she would be Tommy's official new mom. The state could say, "okay, new mom has held herself out to be the parent, so she gets legal recognition and Timmy won't go into the care of the state as an orphan."
The school could act in loco parentis and authorize emergency surgery.
This is almost exclusively why it exists for schools. In case of emergency when seconds matter, schools can't wait for parental approval for every action.
I had to check... and yup, that's a real thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_loco_parentis
Yeah, but it's almost entirely meant to be used in situations where the actual parent or parents are dead or unable to act. So, the school thing would be used if say, little Timmy was off at boarding school and had appendicitis while the parents were out of the country. The school could act in loco parentis and authorize emergency surgery. Or the non-biological parents would be used if mom had died and dad had remarried, but then died before they ever got around to signing adoption papers so she would be Tommy's official new mom. The state could say, "okay, new mom has held herself out to be the parent, so she gets legal recognition and Timmy won't go into the care of the state as an orphan."
This is almost exclusively why it exists for schools. In case of emergency when seconds matter, schools can't wait for parental approval for every action.
Sure. Go look up "Bong Hits for Jesus" for a real trip.