CANLEARN Project

UNIVERISTY OF TENNESSEE COLLEGE OF LAW CAN-LEARN PROJECT

“ Helping Attorneys in Tennessee to Provide Legal Representation to Children in Need of Education Advocacy”

In 2003, the University of Tennessee College of Law created the Children’s Advocacy Network, Whose first project is the Lawyer’s Education Advocacy Resource Network (LEARN) LEARN was conceived in recognition of the yawning need for legal representation on behalf of school age children and youth. In today’s climate of disciplinary exclusion both regular and special education students –particularly low-income students, students of color, and rural students – suffer from lack of adequate representation. The sparse availability of legal representation for students is overwhelmed by the growing need for access to legal advocacy on behalf of this vulnerable population. CAN-LEARN has sought to address this imbalance

In 2004, the University of Tennessee College of Law was admitted to membership in the Law School Consortium Project (LSCP). CAN-LEARN is the University of Tennessee College of Law’s project for the  LSCP. The mission of the LSCP is to increase access to justice by supporting law schools to expand their educational and institutional mission beyond graduation, to include support and service to solo and small-firm practitioners who are committed to serving low and moderate-income individuals an communities. The LSCP is a nationwide network of now seventeen (17) law schools ( with the admission of Stanford Law School in May of 2005) dedicated to enhancing the ability of small firm and solo practitioners to meet the legal needs of under-served communities and individuals. CAN-LEARN, however, also includes legal services and other public interest Lawyers.

CAN-LEARN is not a source of direct representation no is it a pro bono Project. Instead, the Project serves asa backup and support center for lawyers who engage in education representation. The Project will form supportive networks to bolster the ability of small firm and solo practitioners to meet the challenges of representation in a wide variety of education-related cases, including special education, suspension and expulsion, juvenile court, No Child Left Behind, foster children, racial and ethnic discrimination, migrant children, and others.

Initially, the CAN-LEARN Project concentrated its efforts in East Tennessee. We have now expanded our network of attorneys to include interested attorneys practicing within the entire state of Tennessee. And we have established a referral system, by which we refer clients with education-related issues to CAN-LEARN network attorneys.

Also the CAN-LEARN Network of Attorneys meets at the College of Law on the third Tuesday of each month from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. At these meetings, the attorneys engage in seminars, workshops, and trainings, as well as strategize and discuss issues related to education-related cases in which they are involved. Also, some of the CAN-LEARN events are CLEs which are free to all members of the CAN-LEARN network. For those members who are unable to physically attend the meetings, we have web cast capabilities. This allows attorneys (via the internet) to view and participate in the CAN-LEARN meetings, regardless of where they might be physically located.

The CAN-LEARN Project implemented the CAN-LEARN Listserv. The purpose of the CAN-LEARN Listserv is to promote and exchange of information among members and allies of the network, related to the practice of law in education-related cases. The LSCP administers the CAN-LEARN listserv though Lowbono.org, since CAN-LEARN (as a program of the University of Tennessee College of Law) is a member of the LSCP and all CAN-LEARN members have free access to Lowbono.org.

CAN-LEARN is staffed part-time by Barbara H. Dyer, Staff Attorney and Professor Dean Hill Rivkin serves as the CAN-LEARN Project Director. We hope that you would find participation in CAN-LEARN and Lowbono.org helpful in your work. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to join our network of I can be of any assistance to you. If you have any questions or would like to be in touch, the following is our contact information.

Search the Tennessee Department of Education Special Education Final Orders