Federal Court Rejects Admissions Challenge to Boston’s Selective Public Schools →

Federal Court Rejects Admissions Challenge to Boston’s Highly Selective Public Schools On October 1, 2021, Judge Young of the District of Massachusetts reaffirmed that the City of Boston may consider racial, socioeconomic, and geographic diversity in crafting admissions policies for its highly selective public schools. In a thorough and thoughtful...

Closing the Digital Divide →

FRAGMENTED ACCESS: LOW INCOME, STUDENTS OF COLOR SHOULDER EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGES AS THE DIGITAL DIVIDE WIDENS Tech Inequity Has Exacerbated Pandemic-Driven Lost Learning For Low-Income, Black and Latinx Students In Massachusetts As the new school year begins, education advocates, youth-serving organizations, and civil rights lawyers sent an open letter to the...

Victory! Federal Appeals Court Rejects Attempt to Hold Up School Decisions →

VICTORY! FEDERAL APPEALS COURT REJECTS PLAINTIFF’S REQUEST TO HOLD UP SCHOOL DECISIONS  In a unanimous decision issued on April 28, 2021, the Chief Judge and two Circuit Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit rejected an eleventh-hour attempt by a group seeking to halt the...

Victory on Boston’s Selective Public Schools →

VICTORY! FEDERAL JUDGE UPHOLDS INTERIM PLAN FOR ADMISSION TO BOSTON’S HIGHLY SELECTIVE PUBLIC SCHOOLS In a decision issued on April 15, 2021, Judge William G. Young of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts soundly rejected efforts by a group seeking to overturn the Boston Public Schools’ Interim...

Victory on Highly Selective School Diversity! →

JOINT STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO VICTORY IN TODAY'S RULING RELATIVE TO THE BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS Thursday, April 15, 2021 The Boston Branch of the NAACP, The Greater Boston Latino Network, Asian Pacific Islander Civic Action Network, Asian American Resource Workshop, Anti-Defamation League of New England, and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute,...

Welcome Letter to Mayor Janey with Racial Justice Blueprint →

AFTER DECADES OF INSUFFICIENT MUNICIPAL ACTION, LAWYERS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS GIVES MAYOR JANEY BLUEPRINT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE AND IMMIGRATION REFORMLawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) congratulates and applauds Mayor Kim Janey for her historic leadership as Boston's first Black woman Mayor. For many years, LCR has tirelessly advocated for the City...

Intervention to Protect Diversity in Boston’s Exam Schools →

COALITION OF BLACK, LATINX & ASIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS AND FAMILIES OF COLOR INTERVENE TO DEFEND EQUITY IN BOSTON’S HIGHLY SELECTIVE PUBLIC SCHOOLS The NAACP Boston Branch, the Greater Boston Latino Network (GBLN), the Asian Pacific Islanders Civic Action Network (APIs CAN), the Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW), and three...

Literacy Resources →

Check out these resources for students and parents compiled by the Boston Schools Fund.

2020 Annual Report →

We are excited to share our 2020 annual report. The report is available here. Please click here to download the report.

Open Letter to Biden/Harris Transition Team →

Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) sent an open letter to the Biden-Harris Transition team identifying urgent legal and policy issues that are currently affecting people of color and immigrants across the country. The letter identifies seven critical areas for immediate executive action, and urges the new Administration to prioritize the...

The Repair Work Begins Now →

STATEMENT FROM NOVEMBER 7, 2020 Lawyers for Civil Rights has played a critical role over the last four years securing major legal relief, including nation-wide injunctions, against executive actions that would harm people of color and immigrants.  We've also stopped the dismantlement of long-standing federal programs designed to protect people of color and...

Exam School Admissions and COVID-19 →

The Exam School Admissions Working Group for Boston Public Schools (BPS) recently presented its recommendations to the School Committee regarding how the district should alter the 2021-2022 admissions cycle. If adopted, the recommendations would address many of concerns surrounding equity and exam school admissions, particularly in light of COVID-19. Although the...

Digital Racial Gap in Boston Public Schools →

Digital Divide in Boston Public Schools Exacerbates Disparities Along Racial Lines and Disabilities Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell and Lawyers for Civil Rights Urge Immediate Action to Close the Digital Gap As Boston Public Schools (BPS) gets ready for its remote reopening next week with plans to phase in a hybrid...

Statement on Boston’s Exam School Admission Errors →

Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) has learned that, due to database errors beginning in December 2018, a number of students entitled to admission at one of Boston's three exam schools either did not receive invitations at all or were not invited to their top choice of school for both the...

Student Advocacy Groups Sue BPS and BPD for Records on Information Sharing With ICE →

Student Advocacy Groups Sue Boston Schools, Police Department to Uncover Records Showing Student Information-Sharing With ICE As police reform takes center stage at the national, state, and local levels, the Center for Law and Education, Inc. (CLE), Multicultural Education, Training, and Advocacy, Inc. (META), and Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR)...

Calling on BPS To Scrap The Test →

Lawyers for Civil Rights Calls On Boston Public Schools To Scrap Test For The O’Bryant, Boston Latin Academy and Boston Latin School In Light Of COVID-19 Pandemic and the Racial Digital Divide Urges School District To Follow Its Own Task Force Recommendation Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) calls upon Boston Public Schools (BPS) to adopt...

School Police →

Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) commends the Minneapolis public school board for its unanimous vote last week to end financial ties with the Minneapolis Police Department after yet another unarmed Black man, George Floyd, was murdered by police. With support of students and the Minneapolis teachers union, the school board said that the...

Coronavirus Pandemic Response →

Intake The demand for our free legal services has increased exponentially since the start of the public health and economic crisis.  Since March, we have received over 350 requests for legal assistance (intakes). The estimated demographic breakdown is as follows: 55% Black; 25% Latinx; 10% Asian American; and 10% other....