Education Law at The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland

The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland has been providing high quality legal services to low income clients since 1905. As the needs of the community changes, so has Legal Aid to meet the emerging needs of clients. The growing need to provide support to parents as they encountered difficulty getting school systems to provide services to their children led Legal Aid to begin a new practice area for Education in 2004.

The Education Law practice at Legal Aid focuses on individual representation as well as engaging in initiatives to bring about systemic change. Individual client representation includes issues such as getting school districts to evaluate students for disabilities, making sure that schools provide appropriate services to students identified with disabilities, preventing suspensions and expulsions, and gaining access for students out of school. Special emphasis is placed on insuring that students with mental health or behavioral problems receive special education and other appropriate services designed to keep them in school and out of the Juvenile Court system. The practice started with 1.5 attorneys and has grown to include 9 attorneys who include education law as at least a portion of their practice. Currently, one attorney has a practice that is entirely devoted to education issues.

In addition to direct representation, the Education Law practice focuses on community outreach and education by giving presentations to parents and community workers. Teaching them about educational rights helps them to better advocate for children to obtain the services they need to succeed. Community education also helps to insure that families know that there are legal solutions to the problems they may face in school. The unit has also developed educational brochures to educate parents about their rights.

Finally, the Education Law practice works to ...