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.50 YEARS OF....
Using the law to advance education justice for families
Since our founding in 1971, AFC’s mission has been grounded in our belief in education as a civil right. 
All children in this country have a right to education. From our earliest days, we have brought specialized legal knowledge and skills to the struggle for education justice, using strategic litigation to support and advance families’ efforts to protect the civil rights of students. Litigation has been a powerful tool, essential to AFC's efforts to improve education law and eliminate systemic barriers to learning.  

Our first federal class action lawsuit in 1979, known as Jose P., was instrumental in making newly enacted federal rights for students with disabilities a reality. The litigation led to the creation of systems for delivering timely, appropriate evaluation, placement, and services for students with disabilities in the New York City public schools.
After filing the case, Jose — who at 16 years old had never attended school — and many of his peers were able to go to school and receive an education for the first time. Today, we and our co-counsel still use the framework of the case to stand up for students who are not receiving their federally mandated services.
Over the decades, AFC’s impact litigation has pushed for important policy change by fighting the push-out of high school students at several New York City high schools; challenging the DOE’s persistent failure to implement impartial hearing orders for students with disabilities; and most recently, filing a class action complaint on behalf of students with disabilities who have not received an appropriate education during remote learning. 

In our 50 years, we have brought more than 15 federal lawsuits challenging policies and practices that discriminate against the most educationally vulnerable students and create obstacles to their education.
Our impact litigation has protected the right to learn not only for the thousands of clients we serve directly each year, but also for hundreds of thousands more.