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 THE
PUBLIC INTEREST LAW CENTER OF PHILADELPHIA
Affiliated with the
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
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Support the Law Center today!
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2009
was an exciting and productive year for the Law Center - help us build
on those successes by making a tax deductible gift today!
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Has the Law Center positively impacted your life?
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If
so, share your story by writing a review on the new website www.greatnonprofits.org. This
website will help people learn about new nonprofits through the words
of individuals who believe in the work the organization is doing.
Our goal is to collect 5 reviews by February 15th - please help us
reach that goal! Be the first to write a
review!
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LETTER
FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Children with
disabilities and their parents gained a creative and energetic advocate
last month when I named Law Center lawyer Sonja D. Kerr as
the Director of the Law Center's Disabilities Rights Project.
Sonja, who joined us last March from a private practice in Alaska, has
represented children with disabilities for more than 20 years in states
around the country including Minnesota, Indiana and Alaska. She was a
founder and the first chair of the national organization Council of
Parent Advocates and Attorneys (COPAA). For Sonja, as for the
rest of us at the Law Center, the core mission is to ensure that people
have access to the material benefits of society-and when disability, or
poverty, or race deprive people of those benefits, we use our skills as
lawyers to remove those barriers.
Working
collaboratively with established advocates in Philadelphia, Sonja and
the Law Center will build upon the focus on employment during our 40th
anniversary symposium and take on the barriers that prevent people with
disabilities from working. Among other projects, we will hold
schools and other officials accountable for getting students with
disabilities real, meaningful transition services to prepare them for
the working world. Sonja will also dismantle those
structures that keep children with disabilities out of school
altogether, created when districts ignore needed services and instead
improperly rely on school discipline and criminal proceedings.
Finally, Sonja will continue her lifetime's work in solving the
shortage of trained, qualified lawyers who can represent families and
children with disability. Her article in the Alaska Law Review,
described below, and the Law Center's new consultation services are
only two of the Law Center's initiatives to build a new network of
capable lawyers.
Under Sonja's
leadership of the disabilities rights project, the Law Center
embarks upon its second 40 years as a powerful voice for people
with disabilities and for all people who are disenfranchised, be it to
secure an education, medical care, voting rights, a healthy clean
neighborhood, a job or a reasonable, non-discriminatory criminal justice
system.
Thank all of you
for supporting us and allowing this work to continue.
Sincerely,
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Students at
Historically Black College Charge Racial Discrimination in Chester
County Polling Places
 On Election Day 2008, hundreds of Lower Oxford East
voters - most of them African-American - waited up to seven hours in
the pouring rain to cast their votes (pictured at right, voters wait in
lines extending down the block, beside active train tracks). Those who
were unable to wait left without voting. The Law Center's Michael
Churchill and a coalition of civil rights groups filed a federal
lawsuit on January 20th on behalf of African-American residents and
Lincoln University students in Chester County, charging that the County
Board of Elections and Department of Voter Services deprived
African-Americans in Lower Oxford East Township of their right to vote
by assigning them to inconvenient and inadequate polling
facilities. More...
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Law
Center offers new consultation services
As Sonja Kerr explains in a recent law
review article, found below, there are far too few lawyers to represent
the nation's 6.8 million children with disabilities, particularly in
the procedurally complex administrative hearings under the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act. As a partial solution to
redressing this imbalance, the Law Center will offer consultation
services to families, commencing February 11, 2010. Families will be
asked to gather and send in their children's educational records and
fill out a questionnaire in advance of an in-person meeting. We will
review the records and meet with families to arm them with information
and advice about possible approaches for the education of their
children. The discussion during the meeting will be followed up with a
letter summarizing our advice. The services will be available by
appointment only; with slots reserved for low income families. Families
who do not qualify as low income will be asked to make a modest payment
covering the Law Center's costs. Learn more...
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December 2009 - Parents of children with
disabilities or special education needs, like Ricky, right, may want to
represent their children in hearings without the assistance of an
attorney - this is known as litigating pro se. In an article for
the Alaska Law Review, Sonja Kerr, Director of Disabilities Rights
Projects, examines the rights of parents to litigate pro se on behalf
of their children under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA). While the focus of the article is the state of Alaska,
the issues and concerns are common for parents throughout the United
States and the article is a good resource for parents who are facing
pro se issues in advocating for their children.
"Winkelman:
Pro Se Parents of Children with Disabilities in the Courts (Or
Not?)"
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Expert,
Medical Director testify in Florida Medicaid Trial
As
of January 26, 2010 four witnesses have taken the stand in a case on
behalf of more than one million Florida children enrolled in or
eligible for Medicaid, including the Gorenflo family's children -
pictured at right. The Law Center's Jim Eiseman has traveled to
Flroida twice since the beginning of trial on December 7, 2009 for nine
days in court. Three witnesses have completed their testimony and
one will continue when trial resumes on February 9, 2010 for three more
days. The Law Center's co-council, a superb team of attorneys from the
Ft. Lauderdale office of Boies, Schiller and Flexner, LLP led by Carl
Goldfarb and Stuart Singer, have dedicated an extraordinary amount of
time and resources to the case, which is expected to be tried in
increments until at least this summer. More...
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Precedent-Setting Order in
Electronic Voting Case
 On December 23, 2009 defendants, electronic voting machine
vendors, were ordered to produce source code for machine software and
hardware for review by plaintiff experts. The plaintiffs,
Law Center clients, allege that voters have a right under the state
constitution for their votes to be counted in a manner that can be
audited, yet these machines, which have been approved by the state,
leave no paper trail. This decision sets a national precedent
allowing voters to exercise oversight for the integrity of voting
machines. The firm representing the defendants agreed to
negotiate an appropriate protective order to ensure the security of
trade secrets.
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The Effective
Teaching Campaign announces their grades for the new Philadelphia
School District teacher contract
January 26, 2010 - The Law Center's Michael Churchill
joined other members of the Effective Teaching
Campaign, including students, parents, teachers and advocates in
rating the School District's new teacher contract in terms of the
benefit to students. The group noted progress on three fronts,
but saw little to address the crippling teacher turnover rates at some
neighborhood schools. "This contract is the best we have
seen in many years from the perspective of improving teacher quality
for all students," said Churchill. Gathered in front
of the School District Building for a press conference, the ETC issued
the following letter grades on 4 key issues:
1. Site Selection:
B+
2. Incentives
for Equity: D
3. Standards and
Evaluations: A-
4. Professional
Development: B
More....
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Join us at these upcoming
events:
REINVENTING THE WHEEL: WHY BROKEN CITIES STAY BROKEN AND
NEW WAYS CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEYS CAN FIX THEM
Presented by the Michigan Journal of Race and Law
February 5-6, 2010
University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, MI
Adam Cutler,
Director, Public Health and Environmental Justice Project
will present as
part of a panel entitled:Creating the Solutions to the Problems that
Plague Our Broken Cities
More information and
registration
COUNCIL OF PARENT
ATTORNEYS AND ADVOCATES (COPAA) ANNUAL CONFERENCE
 March 11-14 2010
St. Louis, MO
Featuring
presentations by:
Sonja Kerr, Director,
Disabilities Rights Project
Becca Devine, Law
Center Volunteer Advocate
More information and
registration
TELLING THE
PENNHURST STORY: TRAGEDY & TRIUMPH - SAVE THE DATE
 Saturday, April 10, 2010
Spring City, PA
Presented by:The
Law Center, The Pennhurst
Memorial and Preservation Alliance, and the Pennsylvania
Humanities Council.
A public forum exploring
the controversial history of the Pennhurst State School and Hospital, a
former state-run institution for individuals with disabilities, and the
subject of a class action lawsuit brought by the Law Center alleging
abuse, neglect and unnecessary segregation of residents. The Law
Center, along with our partners, will dedicate a PA historic marker
near the former campus in commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of the
landmark court order that led to the institution's closure and the rise
of community-based services for individuals with disabilties.
Check the Law
Center's upcoming events page for more details
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The Public Interest
Law Center of Philadelphia is dedicated to advancing the Constitutional
promise of equal citizenship to all persons irrespective of race,
ethnicity, national origin, disability, gender or poverty. We use public
education, continuing education of our clients and client organizations,
research, negotiation and, when necessary, the courts to achieve systemic
reforms that advance the central goals of self-advocacy, social justice
and equal protection of the law for all members of society. www.pilcop.org
The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia is a
registered charitable organization. A copy of the official registration
may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll
free within Pennsylvania 1.800.732.0999. Registration does not imply
endorsement.
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