We designed these tools and materials both to educate larger numbers of students and parents about their rights to high-quality education and ways of effectuating them and to seek improvements in local school practices that will make real students’ right to high-quality education. We encourage any feedback based upon your local experiences so as to better inform our joint work on NCLB reauthorization, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) implementation, improved Department of Education oversight, and state implementation.
- CLE Releases Key Tool for School Reform: Educational Quality Bill of Rights (EQBR) (PDF) CLE has developed both a short and long version of its EQBR. The EQBR is designed as a starting point both to help schools articulate what they need to provide to ensure that all children receive a high-quality education, and to advance district and state adequacy efforts to help ensure that the resources and supports are sufficient for schools to have the capacity to provide that high-quality education.
- EQBR Short-form (1 page version) identifies each key element of quality education in response to parent-oriented key questions about a school.
- American Bar Association Calls for Action on Right to High-Quality Education (PDF) Press release announcing ABA’s adoption of three resolutions pertaining to securing the right of every child to a high-quality education. CLE co-director Paul Weckstein, as part of the ABA's Commission on Youth at Risk, was the primary author of the resolutions and the respective accompanying reports set forth below.
- 118A: Right to a High-Quality Educational Program (PDF) This resolution urges attorneys and bar associations to help secure the right of all students to a high quality public education through improvements in state and federal law, representation of students, parents, and organizations, and community legal education.
- 118B: Right to Remain in School (PDF) This resolution by the ABA calls for improving laws and implementing and enforcing policies that will help advance students’ right to remain in school, including by promoting a safe and supportive school environment, proactively addressing problems leading to students leaving school through dropping out or disciplinary exclusion or involvement with the juvenile justice system.
- 118C: Right to Resume Education (PDF) This resolution seeks laws and policies that support the right of youth who have left school to return and complete their education. The accompanying report discusses the legal bases for such right, the research and policy arguments for eliminating barriers to return, establishing high-quality age appropriate program options, and creating coordination systems that enable youth to understand and avail themselves of those opportunities.
- Title I School Level Provisions for Ensuring Quality Education for Attorneys & Advocates (PDF)
- "Using Stimulus Funds in Campaigns and Organizing for Systemic Education Reform," (May 09) (PDF) Powerpoint presentation answering Key Questions: How will the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) money get spent? How should reforms connected to the funds be shaped? and Who gets to decide these things? Includes Overview of ARRA, Principles and Education Provisions, State's Use for Federal Funds, the Significance of Title I, Civil Rights Laws, and Strategic Opportunities.
- "IDEA and Recovery Act Funds: What Special Education Advocates Need to Know," (April 2009) (PDF) Powerpoint presentation addressing how funds can be spent under ARRA and IDEA for students with disabilities.
- "The Legal Framework for Meaningful Accountability," (200X) (PDF) Powerpoint presentation provides an overview of the laws that hold states, school districts, and schools accountable for providing a high quality education to all students (Title I/NCLB, IDEA, and civil rights statutes).