Direct Representation

JustChildren advocates represent children with a wide variety of educational needs.

In 2007 we represented the foster mother of a 14-year-old African American child experiencing profound autism and mental retardation, complicated by exposure to high lead intoxication levels in early childhood.  The child bounced around from placement to placement until about four years ago when she came to the home of our client as a permanent foster child. The child was in public schools until communication difficulties led to behavioral difficulties.  The schools and the Dept. of Social Services recommended a residential placement, and last January, the child was sent to a residential school over three hours from home. 

JustChildren initiated an application to a specialized school near the foster parent’s home, supplemented the application with a videotape of her current school to illustrate her lack of progress, and arranged for her to visit the school for an interview.  We also negotiated with DSS and the schools to support placement in and transportation to a less restrictive environment, and secured funding from DSS to permit the foster mom to attend a 3-day workshop on working with children with autism. The placement was approved and our client called us in tears to announce “My baby is coming home!”

JustChildren advocates also train other legal services providers to help children with educational issues.  With the assistance of the Legal Services Corporation of Virginia, JustChildren attorneys travel throughout the state to share information and strategies with both attorneys and other service providers who participate in the process of ensuring access to educational services. 

Parent and Community Involvement

Studies support that notion that the more parents are involved in the education of their children, the more likely the child will  succeed.  With this in mind, JustChildren develops accessible self-help materials for parents, such as our Helping You Help Your Child handbook providing parents with training on effective education advocacy, and supporting local organizing efforts in the communities we serve.    

 In Petersburg, for example, we helped local community members form Petersburg Advocates for Children (PAC). This group successfully raised awareness among parents of the free tutoring services that the Petersburg City Schools are required to provide under the federal No Child Left Behind law.  As a result, we expect that hundreds of additional children will receive the benefits of this important intervention.  In Spring 2007, PAC and JustChildren organized a community meeting attended by over 150 local residents (see photo at left), who questioned Dr. Billy Cannaday, Virginia's Superintendent for Instruction.

Policy and Legislative Work

In addition to representing individual low income children all along the school-to-prison pipeline, and increasing the capacity of parents, lawyers, and child serving professional to become effective education advocates, JustChildren is actively engaged in shaping statewide education policy.  Through rigorous research, coalition advocacy, community organizing, public education, legislative  and administrative advocacy, and media outreach, JustChildren ensures that the voices and needs of low income families help shape education policy in Virginia.  Our victories in the last year include:

Increasing Access to Preschool for At-Risk Four-Year-Olds

• Our work: JustChildren, along with our partner, Voices for Virginia’s Children, led a diverse coalition of preschool proponents to back a proposal by Governor Kaine to increase the Commonwealth’s investment in Virginia’s at-risk four-year-olds preschool program, the Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI).  We helped place supportive Op-Eds and letters to the editor, and engaged in an aggressive electronic advocacy campaign with The Alliance for Virginia’s Students to encourage this important investment in preschool.  (Photo above shows Governor Tim Kaine and constituents at the March 2008 press conference supporting increased preschool funding.)  
• The result:  In a tight budget year, the General Assembly invested $22 million additional dollars in VPI, while also adopting important policy changes to encourage localities to serve more at-risk four-year-olds.  This could lead to 7,000 additional four  year olds each year having access to high quality preschool.

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Protecting Public School Funding, Including Funds Targeted for At-Risk Students

• Our work: Through JustChildren’s work with the Alliance for Virginia’s Students, a coalition of municipal and education groups, we helped to fight off an aggressive attack on Virginia’s school funding formula that would have short-changed our students millions of dollars in the short term, and potentially billions in the long term.  JustChildren and the Alliance initiated an aggressive email and phone campaign, wrote letters to the editor and opinion pieces, spoke up at a press conference organized by the Virginia Education Association, and engaged in direct advocacy with several key legislators on the budget committees of the House and Senate.   
• The result: The 2008 General Assembly and the Governor approved a budget that moves Virginia forward in educating our K-12 student population.  Though more work is needed to make Virginia competitive with other states, this was a significant accomplishment in a tight budget year.

Read more . . .

Raising Graduation Rates

• Our work:  In Virginia, high schools are accredited based solely on the percentage of students that pass Standards of Learning (SOL) achievement tests.  Under this system schools have an unfortunate incentive to lose track of low achieving students as a way of boosting their pass rates.  As a result, all 25 of Virginia’s high schools labeled “dropout factories” by researchers at Johns Hopkins were Fully Accredited last year.  For the last two years, JustChildren  has used a variety of strategies to urge the Virginia Board of Education to adopt graduation rate standards for high schools, adding a second layer of accountability and insuring that schools have an incentive to keep all students on track to succeed. 
• The result:  The Virginia Board of Education has approved regulations tying graduation and completion rates to accreditation ratings for high schools.  Virginia will be among the first states to take this important steps to increase graduation rates.

Eliminating Unlawful Public School Fees

• Our work: Public school is supposed to be free, at least according to the Virginia Constitution.  Yet schools across the Commonwealth charge fees for everything from gym uniforms to science lab or, in some cases, simply “school.”  JustChildren published a report on the policies and practices of 26 Virginia school districts, asked the Virginia Board of Education to revise its regulations on permitted fees and charges, enlisted other legal aid agencies in the cause, and together targeted individual school districts with the most egregious fees and practices.  JustChildren’s report was picked up by TV, radio, and print media across the state.
• The result:  Two school districts eliminated most of their fees and revised their policies to make waivers available to all low-income students.  The Virginia Department of Education did its own survey of school districts and found that most schools charge fees and few have policies regarding financial hardship.  And, most significantly, the Virginia Board of Education agreed to revise its regulations, which haven’t been revised since 1980, to cover permissible and impermissible fees, as well as policies for families that cannot afford the fees.  Public comment will be received this fall.

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Preserving Parental Rights in Special Education

• Our work: The educational rights and opportunities for children with disabilities are protected by both state and federal law.  A long standing hallmark of these protections has been the requirement that schools gain parental consent before changing a student’s individualized education plan.   In 2007, the Virginia State Board of Education proposed a number of harmful changes to these protections that would have drastically reduced the requirement of parental involvement and denied opportunities to students with disabilities.  JustChildren developed material to help the public understand the proposed regulations, collaborated with partners to conduct nine Advocacy Trainings throughout the Commonwealth, mobilized hundreds of people to voice their opposition at public hearings and through written comments, advocated with elected officials, and worked extensively with the media.
• The result: Record-breaking numbers of public comments – over 20,000 – were sent to the Virginia Department of Education.  The Governor and Speaker of the House of Delegates have taken strong positions urging the Board of Education to protect current rights and reverse many of the proposed changes.  The regulations are currently in the final stages of review and revision, and we are hopeful that the current rights of parents and students will be upheld. 

          Click here to review an outline of some of the key changes to the Regulations...

          Read more . . .