MISSION

SJP uses special education law to ensure that older, court-involved students with disabilities can access a quality education.

SJP's special education attorneys work with their clients to protect and enforce special education rights. Through our individual representation and systemic advocacy programs, we aim to spark a system-wide overhaul, changing the educational landscape for older court-involved students with special education needs who are involved in DC's juvenile and criminal justice systems.

Access to Justice | Access to Education

VISION

At School Justice Project, we believe that all students, regardless of race, income, court-involvement, and disability, should have meaningful access to a quality education. 

HOW WE BEGAN

School Justice Project (SJP) grew out of the experiences of co-founders Claire Blumenson and Sarah Comeau as post-graduate legal fellows at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS). At PDS, Claire had an Equal Justice Works Fellowship and was representing students securely detained in DC's long-term facility as a special education lawyer, while Sarah was working with students securely detained in DC's short-term facility.  The two became close colleagues and friends, sharing cases and experiences.

Too often, Sarah saw her students return to the facility, citing poor reintegration or school failures. Claire saw that a majority of her clients had worked with Sarah prior to their placement in the long-term facility. Together, they quickly identified the pattern through which students seemed to cycle through the facilities—moving from short-term to long-term detention—yet could not find any organization that enforced the special education rights of this student population or combatted this vicious cycle. The two co-founders decided to spin the Equal Justice Works Fellowship into a standalone organization. With an award of seed funding through Echoing Green/Open Society Foundations Black Male Achievement Fellowship, SJP opened its doors officially in August 2013. 

“We really need to address this problem, and the only way to do it is to start our own organization. No one else is doing it.”

— Sarah Comeau, Director of Programs & Co-Founder