State Advocacy

CLE’s Boston office receives MA funding to provide targeted advocacy to challenge systematic statewide issues impeding low-income students from attaining the high academic content and achievement standards set for all students. CLE works collaboratively with community based organizations promoting improved educational outcomes for all students through school- and district-wide change, and provides legal and technical assistance to legal services and other public interest attorneys representing low-income students in an array of education law related matters, including exclusionary discipline, racial and sexual harassment, discrimination based on race, national origin, disability, gender and sexual orientation, testing and assessments, school records and privacy issues, denial of appropriate specialized instruction and supportive services necessary for students with disabilities to access state standards set for all, failure to provide accommodations in teaching and learning for English language learners and students with disabilities, and barriers to high education.

 

School-Level and Districtwide Advocacy Efforts — CLE has been working with families and educators at several schools in Boston using the requirements of Title I as a tool to bring about school-level change. CLE’s Family School-Level Change Initiative seeks to make schools accountable to families, students, and other members of the school community for providing a high-quality education to every child.

 

MA Legislative and Administrative Advocacy – CLE comments and testimony pertaining to MA proposed policies, regulations, and statutes.

School-Level and Districtwide Advocacy Efforts

Recommendations Submitted to Superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson and the Boston School Committee RE: Promoting Successful Pathways to Postsecondary Education and Employment for Students with Disabilities

Recommendations Submitted to Superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson and the Boston School Committee RE: Promoting Successful Pathways to Postsecondary Education and Employment for Students with Disabilities (February 24, 2010) (PDF)...

Recommendations for the Boston Public Schools Code of Discipline from CLE

Recommendations submitted by CLE, BPON Taskforce: Code of Discipline Subcommittee, and parent members of CLE’s Family School-Level Change Initiative. Recommendations urge BPS to adopt and enforce a Code of Discipline that is based on the...

Recommendations for the Boston Public Schools Code of Discipline from the Boston Student Advisory Council

Submitted by Members of the Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC) and the Fifth Floor Student Government at The English High School with Support from CLE, accompanying recommendations by families posted above.  Recommendations for the Boston...

Recommendations for the English High School Civility Standards

Proposed changes to the English High School Civility Standards by members of the Fifth Floor Student Government at EHS with support from CLE. Changes seek to avoid, whenever possible, the exclusion of students from their usual classroom...

Boston Family School-Level Change Initiative Press Release

Boston Family School-Level Change Initiative Press Release (2007) (PDF)...

Boston Family School-Level Change Initiative Executive Summary

CLE has been working with families and educators at several schools in Boston, using the requirements of Title I as a tool to bring about school-level change. CLE’s Family School-Level Change Initiative seeks to make schools accountable to families...

Massachusetts Legislative and Administrative Advocacy

Comments by CLE on MA Proposed Revisions to 603 C.M.R. 4.00

Comments on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s career technical education regulations including the Department’s May 7, 2019 Draft of Proposed Revisions for Discussion and Stakeholder Feedback.  Comments by CLE on MA Proposed...

Comments by CLE on MA Proposed Regulations, Ch. 222 of the Acts of 2012 

Comments in response to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s solicitation for public comment on 603 CMR 53.00, Student Discipline Regulations. Comments by CLE on MA Proposed Regulations, Ch. 222 of the Acts of 2012 (March 2014...

Comments by CLE on the proposed amendments to 603 CMR 28.00 and the proposed regulations on Commonealth of Massachusetts Virtual Schools (CMVS) 603 CMR 52.00

Comments on amendments to special education and virtual schools regulations. Comments by CLE on the proposed amendments to 603 CMR 28.00 and the proposed regulations on Commonwealth of Massachusetts Virtual Schools (CMVS) 603 CMR...

Comments by CLE on Charter Schools Recruitment and Retention Efforts

Follow-up comments on issues of denial of equal educational opportunity, through push-out policies and practices, to LEP students and students with disabilities in Massachusetts charter schools. Comments by CLE on Charter Schools Recruitment and...

Comments by CLE on Proposed Amendments to MA Accountability and Assistance Regulations

Comments by CLE on Proposed Amendments to MA Accountability and Assistance Regulations (November 6, 2009, PDF)...

Comments by CLE (Attorney Joanne Karger) to MA Grad. & Dropout Prevention & Recovery Commission

Comments in Response to the Commission’s Legislative charge, reflecting CLE’s position that the most effective way to address the dropout problem is to ensure that students receive the high-quality education to which they are entitled under law and...

Testimony of Kathleen B. Boundy, Co-Director, CLE, in Support of H.3533 and S.1688: An Act to Restore Enforcement of Civil Rights

Proposed legislation would enable individuals as members of a protected class to bring claims based on state statute that they could once bring in federal court pursuant to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (prior to Alexander v. Sandoval, 2001)...