PA Needs a Budget: Contact Your Lawmakers | | |
Pennsylvania’s 2025-26 budget negotiations are under way. June 30 is technically the deadline for legislators to approve the state budget each year, but we await a final agreement.
The legislature has a constitutional duty to adequately fund our public schools. Students across the commonwealth suffer because of the state’s failure to provide such funding. The Commonwealth Court held in its historic 2023 ruling: “It is now the obligation of the Legislature, Executive Branch, and educators, to make the constitutional promise a reality in this Commonwealth.”
This year we must ensure substantially increased funding for public education. Please contact your state legislators and urge them to build on Gov. Shapiro’s proposal. This includes a second installment of a half-billion dollars in increases for the 348 school districts that state officials acknowledged last year were being shortchanged on state funding by $4.5 billion annually.
The state must accelerate efforts to close the remaining adequacy gap affecting 70% of Pennsylvania students, increase basic education funding and special education funding across all 500 districts, and reform cyber charter funding. Our youngest students also need the legislature to increase funding for early childhood education and early intervention services.
| | Contact Your Federal Legislators TODAY to Oppose the Budget Reconciliation Bill | | |
The U.S. Senate is poised to vote on a revised version of H.R. 1, the federal budget reconciliation bill, today or tomorrow. If the bill passes, it will move back to the House and be considered for final passage this week.
Please contact Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators today and urge them to vote no. This bill will have a devastating impact on the health, education, and well-being of Pennsylvania's schoolchildren. If the bill advances to the House, contact your U.S. representative — and Pennsylvania’s Republican members of the House.
Contact Information:
Click here for a suggested call script you can use when you call your lawmakers.
| | Do You Have Questions About
Extended School Year? ELC Has Answers! | | |
As we enter the summer months, thousands of children with disabilities across PA are returning to schools and other learning sites to participate in Extended School Year (ESY). This programming aims to address the needs of students with disabilities and ensure that the summer break does not result in the loss of critical skills that cannot be regained easily when school resumes in the fall.
Eligibility for ESY is determined by IEP teams, including parents, each year for all children with disabilities, regardless of the type of disability. ESY must be individualized to the needs of each child.
ELC has observed that children of color are disproportionately and wrongly denied eligibility to appropriate ESY services that are individualized to their needs. This is consistent with other aspects of special education programs where grave disparities exist in access to critical services for Black and Brown children — disparities that are rooted in systemic racism and implicit bias. If you have questions about your child’s rights to ESY, please contact ELC’s Helpline!
| | Early Intervention Complaint System
Must Be Accessible and Transparent, ELC Urges | | |
The state should maintain a robust complaint system to ensure Pennsylvania’s young children receive critical early intervention services and access to a high-quality early childhood education. Joined by leading disability advocates and organizations, we submitted our comments June 16 to the state’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL).
Pennsylvania’s early intervention system provides services for children ages birth to 5 with developmental delays and disabilities. These services, including specialized instruction, speech therapy, and occupational therapy, address their developmental needs and prepare them for success when they reach school age.
Early intervention services help ensure children’s access to high-quality early childhood education. In turn, early childhood education plays a vital role in the learning and social development of all children, especially those with disabilities. ELC’s comments provided important recommendations to make OCDEL’s Early Intervention administrative complaint system accessible, effective, and consistent with federal and state law.
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ELC Challenges Harmful Federal Priorities
That Undermine Public Schools
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ELC submitted public comments June 18 in response to the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed priorities and definitions for discretionary grant programs. The department aims to prioritize funding for “evidence-based literacy, expanding education choice, and returning education to the states.”
ELC’s comments focus on our concerns that the administration’s stated intent, made clear in their press release, would abandon proven school initiatives like social emotional learning; diversity, equity and inclusion practices; and efforts to recruit and retain diverse educators. Our comments also denounce the department’s harmful “education choice” agenda, which would divert taxpayer dollars away from traditional public schools to private and charter schools that serve fewer of our most vulnerable student groups and often fail to deliver better outcomes.
Finally, our comments underscore the critical role of the U.S. Department of Education in funding public schools, enforcing education laws, and protecting students from discrimination and civil rights violations.
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ELC Denounces Ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor; Schools Must Uphold Their Duty to Ensure Safe, Inclusive Learning Environments
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The U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion June 27 in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case brought by a group of parents in Maryland that wanted to opt their students out of lessons with LGBTQ+ characters. The court did not prohibit the school district from offering inclusive curriculum but held that the district must change its policy to allow parents with a religious objection to opt out of lessons that use books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes. The ruling only applies to the Maryland parties in that case.
ELC urges Pennsylvania educators to resist any move away from inclusive practices. Our public education system must remain a place that embraces differences and provides opportunities for children to cultivate respect and understanding for all.
Research shows that LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum is associated with reduced incidences of bullying and victimization, higher grade point averages for LGBTQ+ students, and more positive school climates for everyone. LGBTQ-inclusive curricula are also shown to be beneficial to all youth. This research was highlighted in an amicus brief submitted to the court by our partners at the Women’s Law Project and Community Justice Project on behalf of Education Law Center and others. See our press release for more information.
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Congratulations to ELC Clients
on Their Graduations
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Congratulations to ELC client Akeisha Cook, pictured here at her graduation.
Akeisha Cook
ELC applauds our client Akeisha Cook, who recently graduated from John Harris High School in Harrisburg. In 2023, ELC successfully challenged Akeisha’s unlawful expulsion and ensured she could return to school with proper supports. Akeisha plans to attend Harrisburg Area Community College this fall to begin pursuing her career in medicine and nursing. Congrats!
Maya
Congratulations to “Maya,” who graduated from middle school! Maya loves band and is eager to improve her skills in high school. ELC successfully advocated for Maya to be evaluated for special education and obtain an effective IEP. We also removed barriers so that Maya could consistently attend and fully participate in school, including extracurriculars. We are excited for Maya’s future and will be cheering her on!
| | ELC Welcomes Communications Director Lindsay Wagner | | |
ELC welcomes Lindsay Wagner as our communications director. Lindsay brings more than two decades of experience in journalism, strategic communications, and public policy to her role. She most recently served as an assistant director at the American Federation of Teachers in Washington, D.C.
Earlier in her career, she worked as a K–12 education reporter covering the North Carolina legislature and later served as communications director for a statewide public education advocacy organization in North Carolina.
Lindsay brings to ELC a deep commitment to public education, a sharp editorial eye, and a firm belief in the power of storytelling to drive systemic change. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French and international business and a master’s degree in international education policy from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Welcome, Lindsay!
| | July is Disability Pride Month! | | |
Disability Pride Month is celebrated in July, commemorating the landmark passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990. Disability Pride is a direct challenge to ableism and the stigmatizing definitions of disability that are still prevalent. It is a time to promote awareness of the powerful accomplishments of the movement for rights and justice for people with disabilities.
Since ELC’s founding 50 years ago, we have worked on multiple fronts to ensure that students with disabilities have access to quality public education. We have produced a wide array of rights-based resources, available here. Join us in celebrating Disability Pride Month and recommitting to ensure that schools are affirming and responsive, enabling all students to thrive.
| | All the Info in One Place: Our New 50th Anniversary Website! | | Explore our interactive timeline, become an event sponsor, discover our historical impact — all in one convenient place. Click here to learn more about ELC’s achievements over the last five decades and how you can help ensure that future generations will benefit from our work. | | |
We invite you to join us on Sept. 25 for the Education Law Center’s 50th anniversary celebration at the Switch House in Philadelphia.
We will proudly recognize the visionary changemakers uplifting the power of collective action: Jolley Bruce Christman, Jennifer Rice, and the William Penn Foundation.
Sponsorships are available now! ELC’s premier fundraiser serves as a unique opportunity to connect with key stakeholders in education advocacy and reform. Please contact Ariella Gregson to learn more about partnership benefits.
Special thanks to our generous sponsors. Click here to see our list of early sponsors and add your name! We hope you will celebrate this special milestone with us!
| | Joan Mazzotti and Michael Kelly are presenting sponsors of ELC’s 50th anniversary celebration. | | 2017: Victory for Immigrant Students
Who Wanted to Learn English | | |
In this video, Khadidja Issa, a student plaintiff in the case, speaks with ELC senior staff attorney Kristina Moon about arriving in the United States and trying to enroll in school.
In July 2016, the Education Law Center, along with our partners, sued the School District of Lancaster to stop its practice of diverting older immigrant students with limited English proficiency to an inferior, privately operated alternative school.
The federal case, Issa v. School District of Lancaster, was brought as a class action lawsuit. Named plaintiffs were six refugees ages 17 to 21 whose families had fled violence in their native countries.
Lancaster had been refusing to enroll some older immigrant students and requiring others to attend an accelerated credit-recovery program at Phoenix Academy, an alternative school operated by a private, for-profit company called Camelot Education.
In the preliminary hearing, the refugee students offered powerful testimony, explaining that they came to the U.S. eager to learn English and build a better life. They were devastated when the school district initially told them they were “too old” and they should instead “get a job” and then diverted to an inferior school that offered little English instruction. The U.S. District Court judge granted a preliminary injunction, ordering the school district to stop its discriminatory practices. The school district appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which affirmed the students’ right to enroll in the district’s regular high school and access meaningful, effective English language instruction.
In the March 2017 settlement of the case, the Lancaster school board agreed to stop placing older, newly arrived immigrants at Phoenix and to instead enroll them in a newcomer program with language supports at McCaskey.
“There are still few cases that address students’ right to receive meaningful English language instruction, so the Issa case decisions — from both the district court and the Third Circuit — are really important reminders that older immigrant students are entitled to enroll in the district’s regular high school and must be provided an education that allows them to overcome language barriers,” said Education Law Center Senior Attorney Kristina Moon.
The settlement also provided for improved district policies and years of monitoring to ensure other students were not denied their civil rights.
To review the complaint and court decisions from the case, click here.
To read more details about our Issa case, click here.
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| | A copy of the official registration and financial information of the Education Law Center may be obtained from the Department of State by calling toll-free, within Pennsylvania, 1-880-732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement. | | | | |
