Education Advocacy
CLCM’s Education Practice focuses on advocating for quality education for students in under-resourced districts, especially Gateway Cities, and on systemic challenges to district policies and practices that impede students’ opportunities to learn. Education advocacy is conducted at the school, before administrative bodies (BSEA, DESE) the and in court.
Zealous Representation. CLCM attorneys advocate for children and youth who are excluded from school, not attending school, or being pushed out. Examples of cases include, but are not limited to:
children facing disciplinary hearings,
children who are regularly told to leave school or be picked up,
children who are not attending school due to a district’s inability to provide appropriate services,
children facing a school’s unilateral disenrollment, unilateral assignment to an alternative school, or who are being counseled out of a school placement.
Education cases are accepted through requests for legal assistance from parents as well as referrals from courts, legal aid programs, and youth-serving programs. Families must meet income eligibility requirements.
Child-Centered. CLCM’s unique client-centered model engages children as critical stakeholders in their own education. Attorneys work collaboratively with parents but represent student clients’ express wishes, rather than parents, in a child’s educational matters.
Systemic Advocacy. CLCM’s Education Practice engages in systemic advocacy by prioritizing the representation of children facing systemic barriers, including:
Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE)
English Learners (EL) with disabilities
Foster or homeless students
Students with a disability whose disability-related educational needs are not being treated as an education issue
Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP)
The Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) provides legal aid to children in Chelsea, Massachusetts who face barriers to educational access or are at risk for school exclusion–both involuntary (suspension or expulsion) and voluntary (dropout)–through a first-of-its-kind medical-legal partnership between the Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts (CLCM) and Massachusetts General Brigham - Chelsea HealthCare Center (MGB-Chelsea).
MGB-Chelsea is the primary care provider for most of Chelsea’s nearly 6000 public school students, the majority of whom present with health challenges, trauma, and other risk factors making them susceptible to educational difficulties. MGB-Chelsea and CLCM are working together to improve educational outcomes for this vulnerable population by creating a medical-legal partnership focused on legal assistance for youth in need of educational advocacy. The partnership identifies problems at an early stage and work to facilitate a collaborative resolution between schools, families, and the student’s medical care team.