Resources for Inclusive Schools and Honest Education

Welcoming and inclusive schools that provide honest, accurate information to our children give them the freedom to pursue their dreams and prepare them to fully participate in a diverse society.

Today there are organized national and local efforts targeting Black, Brown and LGBTQ students, erasing those populations from the curriculum and programs. These efforts threaten to undermine public schools by inflaming and dividing parents. They are banning books, banning the teaching of accurate history, and threatening teachers with lawsuits. They are trying to silence the voices of LGBTQ families and people of color. These actions are happening at school boards and in the state legislature.

Parents, students, faith leaders, business leaders, and community members working together can protect our schools, support student learning, and fight against these actions. We must make our voices heard.

ELC produces information and materials for parents, students, and community members to use as resources and samples in their advocacy efforts. Find them here.

ELC Open Letter to Hempfield School Board Calls for Rejection of Prohibition on Trans Athletes

Responding to to concerns from parents and community members in Hempfield (Pa.) School District, ELC sent this open letter that urges opposition to proposed prohibitions on transgender students’ participation in school sports. We call for the school board and district to reject the proposed policy because it illegally discriminates against transgender students. We urge the board to instead undertake its duty to affirmatively protect the rights of LGBTQ students. Read the open letter here.

ELC’s 2020 Back-to-School Guide for Pennsylvania Public School Students


The Education Law Center (ELC) has updated our “Back-to-School” guide for families, students, and schools. The information and fact sheets below now include COVID-related considerations for the upcoming school year.

School days during the pandemic may look very different. Students and families face unprecedented challenges. But they continue to have important education rights and protections under state and federal laws that ELC is committed to defending. Our students also remain deserving of equitable, affirming, and culturally responsive school spaces.

Black lives matter! As champions for education justice, we must grapple with the reality that for too many students and families, schools have been places of deep harm, glaring racism, and systemic oppression. Those inequities have grown more visible as schools struggle during the pandemic. At the same time, we are encouraged by increasing public attention to issues of race and disability, as many students are affected by intersectional systems of oppression.

As school resumes, ELC urges our partners, schools, and policymakers to prioritize equity and to confront the legacies of anti-Black racism and other systemic inequities in schools. Our focus is on underserved populations. Our mission is to ensure that all children in Pennsylvania have access to quality public education.

  1. Affirming & Safe Schools, Free from Racism
  2. Student Enrollment
  3. School Discipline
  4. Truancy
  5. Bullying & Harassment
  6. Students with Disabilities – IEP, 504 Plan
  7. Early Childhood Education
  8. Students Involved in Foster Care or Juvenile Justice Systems
  9. Students Experiencing Homelessness
  10. English Learners & Immigrant Students
  11. LGBTQ & Gender Nonconforming Students


1.  AFFIRMING & SAFE SCHOOLS, FREE FROM RACISM

Back-to-School Basics

We know that schools often fail to provide equitable, safe, and affirming environments for all students, particularly students of color. Alarmingly, incidents of racial hate and abuse are on the rise. All schools in Pennsylvania should invest in anti-racist education, develop comprehensive equity policies and practices to enable students to thrive, and ensure that responses to incidents of hate address school climate as a whole. No school community is immune from the systemic and structural racism that pervades our country and culture. Educators and administrators have a legal obligation to speak out and to act to confront and prevent racial discrimination, including racist harassment in schools.

Schools are legally obligated to ensure that students are not being denied opportunities, treated differently, discriminated against, or harassed because of their race, color, national origin, or immigration status. Schools must have policies and practices to prevent and address unequal treatment like discrimination and harassment.

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Say Their Names: Police brutality against Black people and other people of color is longstanding and continues to go unaddressed. But in the wake of horrific police killings of George Floyd, Breanna Taylor, and many others, a longstanding effort by students and community and civil rights groups to remove police from public schools has emerged as a path forward, with dozens of school districts severing ties with police or reducing police presence. More about this work is available from Dignity in Schoolsthe Advancement Project, and ACLU of Pennsylvania.

Impact of COVID-19: Black and Brown communities, hardest hit by the coronavirus, have also borne the brunt of school disruption, receiving diminished educational services. And students in underfunded school districts continue to be subjected to deplorable school building conditions, making those schools unsafe and ill-equipped to safely reopen. See ELC’s publication on toxic schools for related information.

The film “Pushout encourages a robust response to the many ways in which a racist misunderstanding of Black girlhood leads to excessive punitive discipline and criminalization of students by schools. The film builds upon important research on the “adultification” of Black girls — a well-documented finding that Black girls are seen as less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers. This leads to Black girls being devalued, subjected to harsh, disparate treatment, and excluded from educational spaces legally charged with serving them.

Use the resources cited here and in our new fact sheet to engage with your child’s school and ensure that anti-racism, culturally responsive education, and full-school climate interventions are in place. Try to make sure that every member of the school community knows their rights and how to interrupt racism. Together, hold school leaders accountable for making this happen. Urge school and community leaders to invest in our schools, students, and communities, and disinvest from school police and punitive, exclusionary discipline.


2.  STUDENT ENROLLMENT

Back-to-School Basics:

Students have the right to be enrolled in school within five days of submitting only four documents: proof of the child’s age, proof of where the child lives, immunization records, and a sworn statement of disciplinary record.

Due to potential delays in obtaining immunizations during COVID-19, the requirement to show proof of immunizations has been suspended for the first two months of the upcoming school year. Many districts are only accepting online enrollment, which requires internet access, taking pictures of enrollment documents, and uploading them online. Because it may be harder to get required documents during COVID-19 closures, families should ask the school to be flexible in what type of documents to accept and how families can send the documents to school.

Need Help?

What’s New?

Starting this year, 2020-2021, the compulsory school age has changed, so children must be enrolled in and attending school when they are 6 years old and must attend school until age 18 (or until they graduate, whichever comes sooner).

Virtual learning at your home school or district: With many schools still operating via remote learning for some or all students, ELC has prepared a checklist as a guide to ensure that schools are serving all students equitably.

Considering a cyber charter school for your child? If you have questions about how cyber charters work, check out this recent webinar. Or visit Check Before You Choose: You will find information about teacher certification, performance ratings, supervision, and hours of instruction, and learn ways in which cyber charters differ from brick-and-mortar schools. For example, most cyber charters require a parent or guardian to serve as a learning coach for their child. For K-5, this means supervising the child’s schoolwork for an average of about five hours per day.

Cyber charter schools, like all charter schools, are public schools, required under the law to serve all students, including those with IEPs and English learners. But they may have limited experience doing so. To find out whether a cyber charter school has experience serving English learners, click here, search for the school by name, and click on the tab labeled “School Fast Facts.” To find out whether the cyber charter school serves children with your child’s type of disability, click here, scroll down to the name of the school, and click on the report for the most recent year.


3.  SCHOOL DISCIPLINE

Back-to-School Basics:

Students have important rights and protections when facing exclusionary school discipline (e.g., suspension, expulsion, and disciplinary transfer). These include the right to proper notice, the right to ask questions, the right to an appropriate hearing, and in most cases, the right to receive education services in the interim and after exclusion.

Discipline will likely look different in the era of COVID-19. If your child is learning from home and the school is changing or limiting their online program, you may be entitled to rights and school discipline protections. If your child is sent home from school or told they cannot come back because they did not follow new safety and social distance rules, you still have the rights explained in the fact sheets below.

Need Help?

What’s New?

See our updated Student Rights to Free Speech and Expression fact sheet for new information and examples. Generally, a school only has the authority to restrict or punish students for speech that happens at school or a school-sponsored event or on the way to or from school. Some recent court decisions reinforced students’ rights to expression outside of school and on social media. What happens if your school is now all online with virtual classes and school-provided computer? These issues have not been directly addressed by the courts yet, but generally the same rules and standards apply to virtual classes and school activities.


4.  TRUANCY

Back-to-School Basics:

Pennsylvania requires that all students go to school from age 6 until age 18 or graduation. This period is called “compulsory school age.” Legal consequences can arise when students have unexcused absences. If a student accrues three unexcused absences, they are considered “truant.” If a student has six or more unexcused absences, they are considered “habitually truant.” Schools must take steps to improve attendance for students who are habitually truant, including holding attendance improvement conferences to identify and address the reason for absences.

During COVID-19, schools are still legally required to take these steps to protect students’ rights and work with families to improve school attendance and participation. If these steps are taken and attendance does not improve, parents and students can face serious legal consequences, including fines and jail time. While ELC disagrees with these consequences, the law allows schools and decision-makers to impose them.

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What’s New?

Changes to Pennsylvania’s compulsory school law go into effect this school year. COVID-19 has not changed this requirement. Schools are taking attendance and tracking participation, even if they are physically closed due to COVID-19. Check out your school’s website for information about how attendance will work during COVID-19 and whether changes have been made due to the pandemic.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education’s reopening guidance tells schools to consider equity and be flexible with attendance to help keep students and staff safe and to monitor for potential exposure.


5.  BULLYING & HARASSMENT

Back-to-School Basics:

Bullying and harassment are serious issues that can significantly affect a child’s ability to learn. All students have the right to be free from bullying and harassment in school ‒ whether it is verbal, written, graphic, physical, or online. Pennsylvania schools are required by law to have written policies against bullying and harassment and must investigate and address complaints. Behavior may qualify as “harassment” if the offensive conduct relates to race, color, national origin/ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or religion. If your child is experiencing bullying or harassment, keep detailed records of each incident and request in writing that the school take action.

Attending a school “session” of virtual instruction while sitting at home during COVID-19 closures is still in-school time; school staff must intervene to interrupt and prevent any bullying or harassment, using developmentally appropriate interventions.

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What’s New?

Though many schools are returning to virtual or online classes in fall 2020, students have the same rights to be free of bullying and harassment, and schools have the same obligation to promptly and effectively intervene to stop the offensive actions. For example, schools need to provide supervision and support in the online chat programs or other communications platforms they provide for accessing instruction, just as they should be supervising and intervening in bullying or harassment that may happen in the hallway or classroom at school. If a student experiences bullying or harassment in their virtual school model, follow the recommendations in our parent’s guide to collect information and report it to the school.


6.  STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) 

Back-to-School Basics:

Students who have a disability that impacts their learning have the right to a “free appropriate public education” (commonly called a FAPE), a planned program of education and special services that takes account of a student’s individual needs. Special education and related services must be provided by the school free of charge. Parents have the right to participate in the special education process and consent to or refuse particular services. Students with disabilities cannot be punished for behavior that is caused by or related to their disability.

Students with disabilities and their parents still have all of these rights despite school closures and other changes related to COVID-19. Parents should be included in the creation of individualized plans for their students with disabilities to fully access remote learning, hybrid learning, or whatever plan a school develops in response to COVID-19. Students with disabilities should receive all necessary services, including related services, to address their needs.

Need Help?

What’s New?

As schools develop plans for reopening in response to COVID-19, students with disabilities should continue to receive the educational services that are required by their individualized plans or necessary for them to learn. If they do not, they are entitled to compensatory education. For example, if your child is required to receive weekly speech therapy, that service should still be provided weekly. Follow the recommendations in the Resolving Special Education Disagreements fact sheet if you disagree with your child’s plan developed by the school in response to COVID-19.

504 Plans

Back-to-School Basics:

If your child has a health condition, physical, mental, or behavioral impairment that “substantially limits” a “major life activity” and needs help to participate in or benefit from education or extracurricular programs, they may qualify for accommodations in school, called a “504 Plan.” Regardless of whether your child is attending school remotely or in-person due to COVID-19, your child’s 504 Plan should still provide accommodations and services that are necessary to access learning.

Need Help?

What’s New?

If you have questions or concerns about how your child’s 504 Plan is being used during remote or in-person learning, you should contact your school. Use ELC’s toolkit for strategies for requesting a 504 Plan, for guidance in getting a doctor’s letter of support, and for examples of the types of accommodations that can support students with varied health conditions.


7.  EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Back-to-School Basics

Children who receive quality early education do better in kindergarten and in school overall. Publicly funded programs such as Head Start, Early Head Start, and Pre-K Counts offer free early childcare and education programs for children from low-income families. The Early Intervention program provides additional services for children with developmental delays and disabilities at no cost to parents, regardless of income.

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What’s New?

Young children with developmental delays and disabilities continue to have a right to early intervention services despite COVID-19 changes. Your child should still have an individualized plan that addresses developmental needs and provides educational services delivered in the appropriate manner so that your child can learn. This may be virtually, in your home, or in an early childhood education center. Learn more about whether your child is eligible for Early Intervention, how to request it, and how to design an appropriate plan by reviewing our Early Intervention FAQ (frequently asked questions).


8.  STUDENTS INVOLVED IN FOSTER CARE OR JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEMS

Back-to-School Basics

Children involved in the foster care or juvenile justice systems have the right to a free public education, like all public school students.

Students in foster care have additional rights to ensure their school environment is stable, even if they change living arrangements. The right to “school stability” includes the right to remain in the same school even when youth change living placements, the right to enroll in a new school immediately without the required documents, and the right to have an active, involved education decisionmaker.

Students who are placed by court order in a residential facility – including students “adjudicated delinquent” – are entitled to attend the local public school in the district where the facility is located, unless certain exceptions apply.

Need Help?

What’s New?

Children and youth in the foster care and juvenile justice systems may need additional help during the COVID-19 crisis, particularly if they are in a residential placement. All youth have the right to a quality education and all the supports, equipment, and supplies needed to learn. Youth in residential facilities may need a change in placement or access to the local public school. Students with disabilities have the right to request IEP Team meetings to ensure they receive the supports and services needed to make meaningful progress and receive a free, appropriate public education. See our fact sheet for more.

Children in foster care continue to have a right to school stability and immediate enrollment, regardless of whether they are attending school in person or through remote learning. For more details, see Tips for Planning the High School Fall Semester for Youth in Foster Care.

ELC continues to advocate for the rights of students in residential placements through our class action lawsuit on behalf of students who were placed at Glen Mills Schools, where they suffered physical and emotional abuse and were deprived of their right to an education. In our case, Derrick v. Glen Mills Schools, the court upheld the right of students in the juvenile justice system to receive an appropriate and meaningful education, and ordered that the lawsuit can move forward on our claims that students were harmed by a systemic and wholesale failure to provide special education services and a legally compliant general education. The complaint contains graphic descriptions that may be hard to read; the litigation is currently in discovery stage.


9. STUDENTS EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS

Back-to-School Basics:

Students in all public schools, both district and charter, who are experiencing homelessness or housing instability, are entitled to school stability, and immediate enrollment in school, as well as free transportation to and from school. This includes unaccompanied students experiencing homelessness on their own. A federal law called the McKinney-Vento Act provides students experiencing homelessness a robust array of protections to ensure equal access to an education, from preschool through high school.

These protections do not have a time limit and remain in place until the student is no longer experiencing homelessness, even during COVID-19. McKinney-Vento eligible students have a right to school stability, with transportation provided until the end of the school year in which they secure permanent and adequate housing.

Need Help?

What’s New?

The McKinney-Vento Act remains in full force during the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Education Law Center helped secure and enforce an important victory for students who are experiencing homelessness on their own and have special education needs. These students do not have a way to assert their special education rights without the appointment of a surrogate parent. As a result of an ongoing complaint that ELC filed with Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Special Education, the state ordered the School District of Philadelphia to create a new system to ensure that surrogate parents are promptly appointed to students who are experiencing homelessness on their own. The district must now have a pool of at least 10 surrogate parents to meet the needs of unaccompanied students, which is a best practice used in other states. In addition to changes in Philadelphia, all PA districts have been reminded by the Pennsylvania Department of Education of their legal obligation to promptly appoint surrogate parents.


10. ENGLISH LEARNERS; STUDENTS & FAMILIES FROM LINGUISTICALLY AND CULTURALLY DIVERSE COMMUNITIES

Back-to-School Basics:

English learners have many special protections, including the right to learn English (with language instruction such as English as a Second Language or ESL), the right to supports, modifications, and accommodations in their core classes, and the right to be free from harassment based on their race, immigration status, or national origin. Parents whose first language is not English have the right to receive information about their child’s education in a language they understand.

All students have the right to attend school, regardless of their immigration status. Schools cannot ask about a student’s immigration status and cannot require a birth certificate or Social Security number before enrolling a child in school. Students and families from linguistically and culturally diverse communities should receive language services and accommodations that allow them to participate in education regardless of English proficiency.

For more information about the rights of immigrant, refugee, and asylee students and families, the U.S. Department of Education has a website with translated resources. Two factsheets are available in over ten languages on the rights of English learners to participate in educational programs and the rights of limited English proficient parents and caregivers to receive translation and interpretation for communications with school.

Need Help?

What’s New?

Statewide school closures starting in March 2020 highlighted the ongoing challenges linguistically and culturally diverse communities experience with language access in education. As schools reopen in person, remotely, or a hybrid of both, protections for English learners, students, and families whose first language is not English, remain in force. English learners should receive language instruction to gain proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and understanding English from certified ESL teachers. Subject teachers should provide accommodations, modifications, and support for English learners that are appropriate to each student’s age and English proficiency.

Students and families should also have information on educational programming, access to technology and meals, and health and safety protocols in languages they understand. Schools should provide interpretation and translation services to students and families whose first language is not English for general information. Schools must provide language access for parents and caregivers of students with disabilities so that parents may participate meaningfully and make educational decisions for their children.


11. LGBTQ & GENDER-NONCONFORMING STUDENTS

Back-to-School Basics:

LGBTQ and gender nonbinary or gender-nonconforming (GNC) students have the same rights as other students, including the right to be out and the right to be free from bullying and harassment. Schools must respect the right of transgender students to access facilities and programs aligned with their gender identity.

With COVID-19 school closures that require students to stay at home for virtual classes, there may be additional challenges for LGBTQ students resulting from limited access to community support, lack of in-school counseling and, in some cases, the difficult circumstances of quarantining with unsupportive family members. Schools have the obligation to support students’ social, emotional, and mental health, including via remote services and virtual meetings for a Gay Sexuality Alliance (GSA) or other student group.

If a student who is transgender, GNC, or nonbinary identifies a chosen name and pronouns, school staff should use that name and pronoun for all interactions, written and verbal, except where required by the law to use a child’s legal name. This includes providing an opportunity to correct the student’s name on any digital platforms a school is using during virtual learning (i.e. display name on Google Classroom). Purposefully and persistently misgendering a student may be harassment under the law.

Need Help?

What’s New?

The rights and protections of LGBTQ people have been clarified and affirmed at the highest level. In June 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, establishing that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is inherently a form of illegal sex discrimination under Title VII. Courts have long analyzed Title IX about education discrimination in the same way as Title VII about employment discrimination, so this case is a powerful message for schools and LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming students too. Another appellate federal court, directly addressing the question of transgender students’ right to access bathroom facilities, held that “A public school may not punish its students for gender nonconformity. Neither may a public school harm transgender students by establishing arbitrary, separate rules for their restroom use.”


Finally, for everyone involved with public education in Pennsylvania, one of our back-to-school priorities must be to address the state’s inadequate and unfair funding of schools. Far too many children are returning to Pennsylvania schools that are lacking in resources and student supports.

Please participate in PA Schools Work, the statewide campaign for adequate and equitable funding and follow ELC on Facebook and Twitter for updates on our fair funding lawsuit against the state for failure to fund public education under the state constitution.

Please join us on September 24th as we celebrate 45 years of ensuring access to a quality public education for all children in Pennsylvania.


ELC Joins Civil Rights Organizations in Issuing New Report Challenging Curtailment of Important Protections for Children of Color

ELC joined more than a dozen other civil rights organizations in releasing a new report highlighting the ways the Trump Administration is aggressively and intentionally limiting the civil rights protections of children and youth of color in schools. The Report was prepared by the Civil Rights Roundtable, a national coalition of organizations and academic professionals who are experts in the fields of school discipline, civil rights, and disability law. The Report analyzes recent changes in policies, regulations, and enforcement agency action which significantly impact children and youth of color, including reductions in Office of Civil Rights investigations of systemic claims, the proposed rescission of the Title VI discipline guidance, and delay and potential rescission of racial disproportionality regulations under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. These changes threaten to have a devastating impact on a generation of children and youth of color who are already disproportionately excluded from the classroom. The Report demonstrates that the policy, regulatory, and guidance revisions undertaken by the Trump Administration surpass the ordinary actions of a new administration and should be recognized as an intentional and substantial threat to decades of civil rights protections. The Report highlights a series of important recommendations to change this trajectory. Read the report here.

Open Letter to the Philadelphia School Reform Commission on Charter School Equity

The Education Law Center sent an open letter to Philadelphia’s School Reform Commission expressing renewed concern about issues of equity and universal access at Philadelphia charter schools. Data from the District’s Annual Charter Evaluations indicate that vulnerable student populations are underserved by the charter sector. The letter endorses the School District’s efforts to build a more robust Charter School Office. Read more here.

ELC Files Amicus Brief in PA Superior Court Bullying Case

The Education Law Center (ELC) has filed an amicus brief in Nicole B. v. School District of Philadelphia, et al., a case involving a Philadelphia student who was relentlessly bullied because of his race and nonconformance with gender stereotypes; the school failed to intervene and allowed the bullying to escalate from verbal harassment, to multiple physical assaults, and, ultimately, to rape. ELC partnered with the Public Interest Law Center and Juvenile Law Center in arguing that this student, and others like him, should have protection under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA), Pennsylvania’s antidiscrimination law, when their school fails to intervene to stop ongoing harassment. “Unfortunately, the Education Law Center hears frequently from families about issues of bullying and harassment in schools,” said Lizzy Wingfield, ELC’s Stoneleigh Foundation Emerging Leader Fellow. “The issue of unaddressed bullying is pervasive and is particularly common when the bullied student is a child of color who does not conform to societal gender norms or is LGBTQ. Too many people who should intervene to stop bullying view the harassment of gender nonconforming or LGBTQ students of color as if it is normal, so they don’t take it as seriously as the bullying of white, gender-conforming students. That’s why it is so critical that the PHRA is available as a tool to root out discriminatory pervasive bullying.”  Read the news release here and the brief here.

 

 

 

 

 

Open Letter to the Mayor on Philadelphia School Board Nominations

The return of the School District of Philadelphia to local control and the formation of a nine-member school board over the next few months present a unique opportunity to put Philadelphia’s schools on a positive course. Based on our close work with Philadelphia students and families, we wrote the nominating panel and the mayor to urge them to prioritize five commitments that we see as key to the success of this new board. Click here to read the letter.

Local advocates brace for changes in federal education civil rights policy

“I don’t think districts are off the hook from following civil rights laws.”  Deborah Gordon Klehr, ELC Executive Director

7/17/2017 by , published in The Philadelphia School Notebook

Local advocates and civil rights leaders are preparing to be more watchful in response to the decision under the Trump administration to scale back the U.S. Department of Education’s investigations of civil rights violations.

The department announced in early June that it is changing its approach to dealing with discrimination complaints.

Through an internal memo, Candice Jackson, acting head of the department’s Office for Civil Rights, stated that investigations into systemic discrimination will no longer be required and cases will be treated on an individual basis. Civil rights advocates, including those in Philadelphia, say the new protocol could spell disaster for the nation’s most vulnerable students. Continue reading

We’re committed to protecting students’ civil rights

November, 2016

The Education Law Center-PA (ELC) is deeply concerned by ongoing racist, homophobic, xenophobic, and misogynistic rhetoric and incidents in schools. We assure our partners across the state that we will continue holding school districts to their legal obligations to maintain a school atmosphere where students can thrive and do not face fears of violence or discrimination.

ELC remains steadfast in our commitment to ensuring that all children in Pennsylvania have access to quality public education. We advocate on behalf of our most vulnerable students, including children living in poverty, children of color, children with disabilities, English Language Learners, and LGBTQ students, to ensure that prejudice and bigotry do not impede their civil rights. We have been privileged to spend the last 41 years working on behalf of students and families and will continue to adapt to whatever challenges are to come.

We are reminded that the road to educational equity is a marathon, not a sprint, and we promise to continue working in the courtroom and in the community to protect the following rights of Pennsylvania’s schoolchildren:

EDUCATION LAW CENTER’S STATEMENT OF STUDENT RIGHTS

The right to be free from discrimination or harassment based on race

Students have the right to attend schools free of discrimination and harassment based on their race, color, or national origin.

The right to be free from discrimination based on disability

Students with disabilities have the right to a free appropriate public education and to be educated in the regular education classroom to the maximum extent appropriate for the student with the disability. Students have the right to accommodations in school and cannot be punished for behavior related to their disability.

The right to be free from discrimination based on religion and to wear religious clothing in school

Students have the right to practice their religion in school and must be allowed to wear religious clothing and head coverings.

The right to be free from discrimination based on immigration and/or English Language Learner status

Students have the right to enroll in public school regardless of immigration or citizenship status. Students who are English Language Learners have the right to programming that helps them overcome language barriers.

The right to be free from discrimination based on gender and gender identity

Gender discrimination and sexual harassment are illegal. Students also have the right to wear clothing consistent with their stated gender. Some Pennsylvania school districts have adopted policies to expressly protecting rights based on gender identity. Litigation is ongoing to protect the right of students to use restrooms and locker-rooms that are consistent with their gender identity.

The right to be treated equally regardless of sexual orientation

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer students have the same right to be free of discrimination and harassment as other students.

The right to be emotionally and physically safe in school

Students have the right to be free from bullying by students and adults, and students cannot be retaliated against for reporting bullying.

The right to freedom of expression

Students have the right to free speech and cannot be censored unless the speech is obscene, creates an imminent threat, or is significantly disruptive. This includes the right to publish articles in a school paper, to refuse to salute the flag, and to wear political armbands.


The Education Law Center-PA (“ELC”) is a non-profit, legal advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that all children in Pennsylvania have access to a quality public education. Through legal representation, impact litigation, trainings, and policy advocacy, ELC advances the rights of vulnerable children, including children living in poverty, children of color, children in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, children with disabilities, English language learners, LGBTQ students, and children experiencing homelessness. Every situation is different. If questions remain about how the law applies to a situation or if you think your rights have been violated, contact us by visiting www.elc-pa.org/contact or by calling 215-238-6970 (Philadelphia) or 412-258-2120 (Pittsburgh).

Click here to download a PDF version of this statement. 

Education Law Center applauds new Title IX guidance affirming protections for transgender students

May 13, 2016

The Education Law Center applauds the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education for today’s important guidance clarifying that Title IX, the law that bans sex discrimination in federally funded education programs, protects transgender students. It makes clear that transgender students have the right to equal educational opportunities and to be educated in a positive school climate that is free from discrimination.

The Department of Education also released examples of best practices and policies, drawing upon the work that schools and partners across the country are already doing to support transgender students.

Here in Pennsylvania, we recognize Allegheny County Department of Human Services for its work and partnership in fostering collaborative, cross-system conversations about how we can best promote positive educational outcomes for LGBTQ youth in Allegheny County.

We also see Pittsburgh Public Schools leading the way with a new district-wide nondiscrimination policy for transgender students, developed with input from students, parents, educators, and advocates. This policy is in addition to the strengthened protections ELC advocated for in 2014, which resulted in stronger rules against harassment and bullying, more information about how to seek help and support, and a revised dress code that gives students the right to dress in accordance with their gender.

We still have a long way to go towards ensuring that schools are safe, inclusive, and affirming for all students, but today’s guidance represents an important step.

Related Coverage

  • In April, ELC Staff Attorney Cheryl Kleiman was quoted in TribLive on the need for positive school climate and policies that make schools safe and free from discrimination for all students.
  • In 2014, ELC was featured in an article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette covering the Pittsburgh Public Schools’ effort to decrease the use of exclusionary discipline and increase protections and supports for LGBTQ students, parenting students, and English language learners.