Nashville Defenders’ Education Rights Project provides advocacy and legal representation to students with disabilities at no cost to the family to help students succeed in school and stay out of the juvenile court system.

Research indicates that students with educational disabilities and mental health diagnoses are overrepresented in the juvenile court system and adult criminal legal system by way of the School-to-Prison Pipeline. For this group of students especially, we work to make a difference.

Students who receive our services:

• attend school more regularly,
• get better grades,
• have fewer suspension days, and
• are referred to court less often than prior to involvement with our program.

We are often able to use the results of our education advocacy to get better outcomes for students in school, in juvenile court cases, at home, and in the Nashville community.