December 15, 2022

Community Legal Aid Receives Grant to Help Students in Fitchburg and Worcester

BY Laura Hancock Barry, Development Manager, Community Legal Aid(508)-425-2798 / lhbarry@cla-ma.org

Community Legal Aid, the non-profit civil legal aid program serving the low-income and elderly residents of Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester Counties, is pleased to announce that it has received funding from the Mabel Louse Riley Foundation to provide legal assistance to low-income students in Fitchburg and Worcester with education-related issues that are preventing them from remaining and succeeding in school.

Community Legal Aid education work in Worcester County aims to help at least 50 students and their families know their rights in the special education and school discipline processes. With the Foundation’s support, Community Legal Aid will provide free legal assistance to low-income students who have disabilities that the school is failing to address appropriately with adequate services. This includes work representing children with disabilities at IEP and 504 meetings as well. The work will also entail providing legal assistance to students faced with unlawful or unfair disciplinary actions which excludes them from the classroom, including representing students at principal suspension or expulsion hearings and superintendent appeals.

Students may also be eligible for legal assistance if their language access rights have been violated or they have been denied access to school or treated improperly because they have experienced homelessness.

In addition, after years of schools toggling between remote, hybrid, and in-person learning, Community Legal Aid advises families on COVID-specific issues, including compensatory services such as tutoring to make up for lost learning time, and how to support students with social/emotional impairments who experience exacerbations as they transition back to school.

With all of these services, Community Legal Aid works to facilitate better communication between schools and families, with the goal of helping to ensure that at-risk students remain and succeed in school.

If a young person between the ages of 3 and 22 is experiencing any difficulties related to their education and would like to apply for help, please call Community Legal Aid’s intake line at 855-CLA-LEGAL (855-252-5342) or apply online at https://communitylegal.org/get-help/.

About Community Legal Aid:
Community Legal Aid provides free civil legal services to the low-income and elderly residents of the five counties of Western and Central Massachusetts (Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester), and maintains offices in Worcester, Fitchburg, Springfield, Northampton, and Pittsfield. CLA works to assure fairness for all in the justice system, protecting homes, livelihoods, health and families. For more information, please visit www.communitylegal.org.