For nearly 50 years, ELC has served as the “legal defense fund” for enforcing students education rights in New Jersey New York and in states across the country. ELC’s work on advancing the legal rights of students, especially students in schools segregated by poverty and race, is widely recognized for yielding measurable benefits for children – e.g., 50,000 three- and four-year-old children attending high quality “Abbott” preschool in New Jersey, or 30,000 children in Flint, Michigan now eligible for screening and evaluations to assess the lead crisis impacts on their need for special education, and preventing state budget cuts and securing the restoration of teachers and support staff in New York school districts.
The hallmark of ELC’s approach is to embed its legal work squarely within broader state advocacy campaigns and efforts to address and remedy entrenched inequities and disparities, especially for vulnerable students. Inadequate school funding, a lack of early education, deplorable school buildings, deficits in bilingual and special education are among the systemic deprivations of state education rights ELC has tackled over the years, developing an unmatched expertise not only in the legal and policy aspects of these issues while adding a crucial legal dimension to state-based advocacy for school funding reform and resource equity.