In their mostly white school district, Black students routinely heard racial slurs. White classmates hurled insults like “slave,” “monkey” or worse. It often went unpunished. Parents made those claims in a 2024 complaint asking the U.S. Education Department to investigate racial bullying at the Pennridge School District in Pennsylvania. They thought their complaint had the power to make things better. Instead, it became one of thousands sitting in a federal office with little hope of gaining attention after layoffs by the Trump administration. Families say they’ve had nowhere else to turn. Read More

The West Shore school board policy committee meeting came to a halt almost as soon as it began. As a board member started going over the agenda on July 17, local parent Danielle Gross rose to object to a last-minute addition she said hadn’t been on the district’s website the day before.

By posting notice of the proposal so close to the meeting, charged Gross, who is also a partner at a communications and advocacy firm that works on state education policy, the board had violated Pennsylvania’s open meetings law, failing to provide the public at least 24 hours’ notice about a topic “this board knows is of great concern for many community members interested in the rights of our LGBTQ students.”   Read More

York County gained national attention in 2021 when the Central York School District board prohibited teachers from using hundreds of books told from the perspectives of Black, Latino and LGBTQ+ children.

The school board later reversed its decision after students organized a series of protests, but the district continues to face complaints from the community over library materials.

Patricia Jackson, an English teacher in the district, stood with students in opposing the ban and continues to stand against censorship. While speaking on a panel of educators and authors at Zoetropolis Cinema Stillhouse in Lancaster city Friday, following a sold-out showing of the documentary “The Librarians,” Jackson pleaded for others to join her.  Read More

A new report by School Board Spotlight, a project of the Pipeline Education Fund, alleges that a growing number of Pennsylvania school boards are advancing politically motivated policies at the expense of students and parents seeking neutrality in public education.

The analysis, which reviewed meeting minutes, agendas, and policy changes from 193 school boards across the state since 2023, found that roughly one in five boards have adopted measures restricting books, limiting classroom materials, or implementing policies that critics describe as discriminatory toward LGBTQ+ students. The report identifies Adams, Beaver, Bucks, Lancaster, and York counties among those where multiple districts have enacted or considered such actions.  Read More

The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association’s decision to follow President Donald Trump’s executive order regarding transgender student-athletes is illegal, according to a letter sent Thursday to the organization by two Pennsylvania-based advocacy organizations.

The letter was sent by the Women’s Law Project and the Education Law Center to PIAA’s Executive Director Robert Lombardi and the board of directors. It suggests that recent policy changes made by the organization to comply with the order violate both state and federal law.  Read More

The Philadelphia School District has indicated that it will ignore a rule directing schools to ban transgender athletes from participating in sports that match their gender identities.

The move comes after the state’s interscholastic athletics governing body changed a key policy regarding transgender athletes.  Read More

The Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) is pleased to announce the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association (PSLA) as the recipient of the 2024 Gerald Hodges Intellectual Freedom Chapter Relations Award; Matthew Good as the recipient of the 2024 John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award; and Hannah Natanson as the recipient of the 2024 Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award.  Read More

Historically, America’s public schools have been spaces where debates and resistance to civil liberties have played out. From racial integration to political protests, protecting the rights of students has been central to the story of constitutional rights. Read More

January 30, 2024
Central’s Panther Anti-Racist Union, or PARU, which fought successfully to overturn the book ban and elect anti-censorship school board candidates in the November election, was asked to join the coalition so they can help share their tactics and support other districts going through this. Read More

January 24, 2024
At a press conference to announce the formation of a coalition to fight back against book bans and bathroom and athletic policies targeting transgender students, speaker after speaker referred to Central York School District as ground zero. Read More

January 23, 2024
Since 2021, the Education Law Center has heard from people in 46 of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts with concerns about book bans, censorship, or LGBTQ discrimination, one advocate said. Read More

January 23, 2024
The Pennsylvanians for Welcoming and Inclusive Schools (PA WInS) Coalition formally announced its launch at a virtual press conference on Jan. 24. The group is a collective of students, teachers and guardians from various school districts across the state and leaders from organizations known for working against discrimination.  Read More