EDUCATIONAL ADVOCACY CLINIC

Duration: Full-year clinic
Credits: 8 credits (4 credits per semester/letter grade)

Students in the Education Advocacy Clinic will provide individual legal representation to children facing school exclusions to ensure that schools are providing children with all the substantive and procedural due process rights to which they are entitled. The urgency of addressing the impact of school discipline laws is best reflected in the fact that exclusion from school for even short amounts of time, is one of the top three reasons students give for dropping out of school. High school dropouts are more likely to end up unemployed, on government assistance or incarcerated, as adults, than those who receive a high school diploma or go on to college. In this clinic, students will advocate on behalf of indigent and low income children and their parents in school suspensions, expulsions and special education cases from Boston and outlying communities. The goal of this clinic will be keeping our clients in school and making sure schools are providing the needed educational services to ensure successful completion of high school. Students in this clinic will advocate on behalf of their clients at school meetings, school hearings, administrative special education hearings and mediation and resolution sessions. In addition to individual casework, students may work on larger projects, such as legislative advocacy, policy reports or community education and outreach.

There will be a weekly seminar which will focus on lawyering skills, including client counseling, interviewing skills, factual investigations, applicable substantive law, professionalism and professional responsibility. Preference will be given to students in their final year who apply for this clinic.

Questions: Contact Isabel Raskin at iraskin@suffolk.edu