Juvenile and Special Education Law Clinic

Asserting Rights to Special Education Services

Students in the Juvenile and Special Education Law Clinic are focusing on asserting rights to special education services for young people who are incarcerated in adult jail and prison.

Clinic clients who are eligible for such services are incarcerated in the D.C. Jail, in state prison (in a neighboring state), and in a federal prison. Authorities running those facilities are uniformly failing to comply with requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

In addition, students in the Juvenile and Special Education Law Clinic have examined in detail proposed changes to D.C. Municipal Regulations governing special education services in order to determine whether those changes are consistent with federal law and best practices.

Travel to Tennessee

Professor Joe Tulman traveled to Jackson, Tennessee in September to conduct a training on the application of special education law to children in the delinquency system. The audience consisted primarily of judges from the state of Tennessee. Representing the District of Columbia as Chair of the Juvenile Justice Advisory Group, Professor Tulman traveled also to Atlanta, Georgia to attend a Coalition for Juvenile Justice conference focusing on disproportionate minority confinement. Clinic student Judson Powell met Professor Tulman in Atlanta, and they both interviewed a Clinic client who is currently incarcerated in the federal prison in Atlanta.

UDC-DCSL Prof. Joe Tulman Chairs Mayor’s Juvenile Justice Advisory Group

On September 26th, Professor Tulman convened the Juvenile Justice Advisory Group in a meeting at the School of Law. The JJAG voted to allocate two million dollars to initiate a program through the D.C. Department of Mental Health to provide wraparound services for children in the delinquency system who, without such services, would be incarcerated or placed in 24-hour residential treatment facilities.

Accompanying Professor Tulman, students in the Clinic have attended meetings with government agency representatives (from Mental Health, Youth Services Administration, Court Social Services, and others) to consider the details of the wraparound project, as well as proposed changes to D.C. statutes regarding the handling of delinquency matters and reform of the delinquency intake process.

Welcome Back to D.C.

Students in the Juvenile and Special Education Law Clinic also represent a number of clients in the juvenile court system who are currently placed in out-of-state residential facilities, but are preparing to transition back into the District of Columbia. Clinic students Regina Bias, ’03, Darren Johnson, ’03, and Arneece Williams, ’03, have appeared and made representations in court regarding their clients' educational needs, status, and proposed educational placements and independent living services once the client returns to this jurisdiction.

Disciplining D.C. Schools

Clinic students are also preparing to handle disciplinary cases involving students expelled or suspended for extended periods of time by D.C. Public Schools. In the District, students with education-related disabilities too often are suspended for behaviors directly related to their disabilities, despite the school system's failure to provide services that address these behaviors prior to the discipline.

Professor Sutler Speaks

On September 12, Professor Susan Sutler was a speaker at the Sasha Bruce Youthworks' First Annual Parent Education Forum. The audience was primarily parents of youths with disabilities. The topic centered on rights, obligations, and advocacy tips for parents pertaining to the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) process.

On September 17, Professor Sutler was a presenter at the D.C. Public Defender Service's special education advocacy forum titled "Hot Topics in Education and Services for Juveniles with Disabilities in the Juvenile System." Speaking on "Effective Strategies in School Disciplinary Hearings," Professor Sutler addressed issues related specifically to school discipline and the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA). The audience was primarily members of the D.C. Bar, many of whom practice neglect and juvenile law in the District.