2024 By the Numbers

As 2024 comes to a close, we want to share some highlights of Education Law Center’s work over the past year. Our efforts to advance well-resourced, diverse, safe and welcoming public schools and protect students’ education rights in New Jersey and across the country have made us a national leader in the fight to defend and strengthen public education. We need your support to continue this important work in the challenging year ahead. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution today.

Fighting for Public Education and the Nation’s Students Through Litigation

ELC served as co-counsel or amicus curiae (friend of the court) in more than a dozen groundbreaking legal challenges around the nation to protect equitable educational opportunities for public school students this year, including:  

• Cruz-Guzman v. State of Minnesota, a class action lawsuit challenging school segregation in the Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts.  

• Latino Action Network (LAN) v. State of New Jersey, a lawsuit arguing that intense school segregation present throughout NJ violates several provisions of the state constitution. 

• Eidson v. South Carolina Department of Education, a lawsuit that successfully challenged South Carolina’s private school voucher law passed in 2023. 

• OKPLAC, Inc. v. Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, a lawsuit to prevent the establishment of the nation’s first religious public charter school in Oklahoma. 

• Crosspoint Church v. Makin, St. Dominic Academy v. Makin, and Mid Vermont Christian School v. Saunders, federal lawsuits about state statutes prohibiting discrimination against students in schools receiving public funds. 

ELC’s legal work on behalf of students with disabilities revolved around settlement implementation and enforcement in 3 special education class action lawsuits: 

• In M.A. v. Newark Public Schools, state monitoring under a 2012 class action settlement came to an end in 2024 because Newark Public Schools had achieved compliance with federal and state timelines for identifying and evaluating students with disabilities.

• In D.R. v. Michigan Department of Education, agreement on the terms of a special education fund was reached in a federal class action lawsuit brought on behalf of Flint children to address the systemic failure to provide adequate special education and related services in the wake of the Flint water crisis, with implementation underway in 2024. 

• In C.P., et al. v. N.J. Department of Education, ELC is a recent addition to the class counsel team in a lawsuit that challenged New Jersey’s broken special education dispute resolution system and will play a significant role in enforcement if the State fails to achieve compliance with a settlement agreement requiring timely hearings by October 2025. 

Advocacy Highlights

• ELC Litigation Director and Director of our Public Funds Public Schools (PFPS) anti-voucher campaign, Jessica Levin, testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, an independent bipartisan agency, during the Commission’s briefing on the Federal Response to Teacher Shortage Impacts on Students with Disabilities. 

• ELC launched an advocacy campaign highlighting the urgent need for New Jersey lawmakers to review and update components of New Jersey’s school funding formula, the School Funding Reform Act (SFRA), to ensure that it is providing school districts with adequate resources to educate students. 

• As a result of ELC advocacy, families will now be provided with language interpreters in all NJ Offices of Administrative Law (OAL).  

• ELC provided advice, information, and referrals to 167 parents and caregivers through our intake system. In addition, hundreds of calls were fielded from social service agencies, school district employees, and other education stakeholders, who called ELC seeking information on school law and other related matters.  

• ELC provided technical assistance to dozens of partners across the country, participated in numerous state and national coalitions and collaborated with a growing network of national and regional law firms that contributed their services pro bono to represent parents and children in education rights litigation.  

Read more about ELC’s advocacy in 2024.

Communications

• Our organization and staff members were mentioned or quoted in 150+ news stories in both state and national outlets.  

• We released 40 e-blasts on various topics and posted information about and links to those blasts on social media.  

• ELC welcomed Dr. Josh Cowen, a leading national expert on private school vouchers, as a Visiting Senior Fellow. Josh released 7 newsletters in his new The Private Eye series for PFPS.

• We launched a redesigned website to better present the work of ELC in an easy-to-use and engaging format. 

Read ELC 2024 e-blasts here.

Publications

ELC released 11 publications to assist advocates working in New Jersey and across the country. This year, our major reports focused on school funding and anti-bullying litigation.

• Making the Grade 2024: How Fair is School Funding in Your State?

• Improving New Jersey’s School Funding Formula: The Impact of Census-Based Funding for Special Education 

• Understanding Public School Residency Requirements: A Guide for Advocates (English) (Spanish) 

• Litigating Under the New Jersey Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act: A Guide for Advocates  

• The Dangers of Private School Vouchers for Idaho Students, Schools, and Communities 

• NJ A4144/S3035 is a Private School Voucher Bill and it is Extremely Dangerous 

• Students Using Private School Vouchers Lose Antidiscrimination Protections  

View the additional ELC publications here.

Webinars

ELC hosted 6 webinars in 2024:  

• What Do We Do Now? Money Matters More Than Ever So States Can Make the Grade!, featuring ELC Research Director Danielle Farrie and ELC Senior Attorney Wendy Lecker.

• What Do We Do Now? No Vouchers! Public Funds Are For Public Schools!, featuring ELC Senior Fellow Josh Cowen and ELC Litigation Director/Director of Public Funds Public Schools Jessica Levin. 

• Religious Charter School Declared Unconstitutional: A Webinar on the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s Recent Ruling, in collaboration with partner organizations involved in the OKPLAC lawsuit. 

• The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers, featuring ELC Senior Fellow and author Josh Cowen.

• The Education Wars: A Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual, featuring authors Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider. 

• Anti-Voucher Victories in 2024: A Conversation with Education Advocates from MS, NJ, ID, TX and TN

2024 Education Justice Lecture

On June 5, ELC hosted our 15th annual Education Justice Lecture: The Education Beat: Journalism, Education Equity, and How to Get the Education Message Across. This virtual event featured a keynote presentation by former Washington Post columnist and longtime education journalist, Valerie Strauss, and a response panel featuring NJ Spotlight Founding Editor and former Star-Ledger education reporter, John Mooney, and RALLY Principal, Ashley Burns. The event was moderated by ELC Executive Directo, Robert Kim. 

Help Us Defend Education Rights and Racial Justice in 2025 and Beyond!

Make a donation to ELC. As a non-profit organization, we rely on the generous contributions of corporations, foundations and individuals like you to support our work. You can also make a legacy gift to ELC using FreeWill, an online estate planning tool. Learn more here. 

Many thanks to our 2024-25 funders and pro bono partners for supporting our work in 2024!

Press Contact:
Sharon Krengel
Director of Policy, Strategic Partnerships and Communications
skrengel@edlawcenter.org
973-624-1815, x240