Reversing The School-To-Prison Pipeline: Initial Findings From The District of Columbia On The Efficacy of Training and Mobilizing Court-Appointed Lawyers to Use Special Education Advocacy on Behalf of At-Risk Youth

This article will describe the implementation and analyze the results of an attorney training and mobilizing project of the Juvenile and Special Education Law Clinic (Clinic) 1 of the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law (UDC-DCSL).2 This project was premised in part on the notion that many of the children caught in the District of Columbia's school-to-prison pipeline have disabilities that significantly affect their ability to learn, and that many of these children therefore encounter, more than other children, conflict with school personnel and failure in school. These children disproportionately repeat grades, face school exclusion (suspension and expulsion), and leave school without graduating.