August 22, 2016 We commend the School Reform Commission for restricting the use of suspensions against Kindergarten students and for adopting a revised dress code policy that removes subjective language…
More…school shootings that result in an increase in police presence in schools or calls to make our schools look and feel more like prisons. Recent history has taught us this…
Morestate legislative leaders and moved our school funding lawsuit closer to trial. Read about the Court’s decision and our next steps for resolving underfunding and gross inequalities in Pennsylvania’s schools….
Morethrough school despite the fact that Black and Latino students are no more likely to violate school rules than their White peers. “Out-of-school suspensions are developmentally inappropriate for our youngest…
More…Legislative respondents continue to oppose the case moving forward; Senator Scarnati filed a brief blaming poor school districts for their own underfunding. Read the joint news release by ELC and…
More…– Oral argument in William Penn School District, et al. v. Pennsylvania Dept. of Education, et al. commenced before Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court at Philadelphia City Hall on September 13. Hundreds…
More…to give students an opportunity to meet those standards. As a result, students in underfunded schools struggle academically and fail to meet state standards. While Pennsylvania recently adopted a school…
Morewe know that school attendance is a critical issue facing young people and families across the Commonwealth, particularly in school districts facing reductions in resources used to support truancy prevention…
MoreMarch 25, 2015 – by Sue Ann Rybak, Chestnut Hill Local – If you ask any parent with a child in the Philadelphia School District whether they think Pennsylvania’s current…
MoreThe Education Law Center of Pennsylvania and the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia filed suit in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on November 10, 2014 on behalf of six school districts,…
MorePennsylvania Commonwealth Court will hear oral arguments next Wednesday in a landmark lawsuit challenging inequitable and inadequate school funding in Pennsylvania. Attorneys from the Education Law Center and the Public…
More…in limiting out-of-school suspensions of young children and opposing ill-advised proposals to arm school personnel and will continue to push back against efforts to erode established civil rights protections of…
MoreThe Education Law Center of Pennsylvania and the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia filed suit in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on November 10, 2014 on behalf of six school districts,…
MoreOn Feb. 7, 2023, Commonwealth Court Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer issued a historic ruling in the Pennsylvania school funding case, declaring the PA school funding system unconstitutional. “All witnesses agree that every child…
MoreParents and a community organization in Chester Upland School District have filed an emergency motion to suspend a process to outsource the entire district’s operations and schools to charter operators….
Morepractices that actually improve school climate and school safety,” said ELC attorney Cheryl Kleiman. “What we’ve seen from national data and from our own work here in Pennsylvania is that…
MoreSchool boards play a pivotal role in shaping the education that public school students receive. School boards are accountable to the residents of the district they serve and who elected…
MoreAn episode of Smart Talk from WITF (Harrisburg) reviews the status of the school funding court case with guests Mallory Falk, WHYY Philadelphia education reporter; Brenda Marrero, executive director, Public…
More“Over more than four weeks of testimony, the landmark trial in the challenge to Pennsylvania’s school-funding system has featured superintendents and teachers from rural, urban, and suburban communities describing cash-strapped…
MoreAnd while the cause of death for a first-grader at Andrew Jackson School has not been determined, both cases demand that we take a hard look at the impact the…
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