by BBA President Jon Albano
Earlier this year, the Boston Bar Association launched the pilot phase of its Service Innovation Project. Made possible by the Burnes Innovation in Service Fund of the Boston Bar Foundation, the project aims to identify ways for attorneys to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline in our community.
As you will read in this special edition of the Boston Bar Journal, the factors that contribute to perpetuating the school-to-prison pipeline are numerous and complicated. At the BBA, we have been fortunate to be able to partner with longtime experts who have been on the front lines fighting for students’ rights and school discipline reform for decades. Many of them have written the pieces that follow, and I would like to thank them for their continued efforts.
I also would like to thank the Service Innovation Project Steering Committee for their devotion to working toward better outcomes for children in Massachusetts and beyond. Finally, I would like to offer my sincere thanks to the students and parents who lent their voices to this publication and shared their stories firsthand.
If you are interested in getting involved in the Service Innovation Project, please consider attending our pro bono training on representing students in school discipline cases on October 24.
