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• Paige Duggins-Clay, J.D., Makiah Lyons, J.D., & Tionna Ryan, J.D. • IDRA Newsletter • August 2026 •

Movement lawyering brings students, families, communities and legal advocates together to shape strategies, strengthen public schools and advance education justice.

This year so far has brought landmark changes to federal education policy that have weakened longstanding civil rights protections for students and families. For example, legacy civil rights agencies and decades-old legal precedent are being dismantled (Caldwell et al., 2026). And collusive litigation is being used to overwrite decades-old state education laws (White & Duggins-Clay, 2026).

Such actions have destabilized democratic and legal norms and eroded the protections for student civil rights. And they have exacerbated longstanding discrimination and inequities in education systems.

Rather than treating communities as clients, movement lawyering positions them as partners in developing legal strategies, shaping policy priorities and building collective power.

These changes undoubtedly make it more difficult to address discrimination in schools. But it does not change the core rights and protections guaranteed to every student in the United States. As threats to educational opportunity intensify, advocates must rethink how we pursue education justice.

Five Principles Define Education Justice

Lubbock NAACP and IDRA hosted a community dialogue with students, families and school leaders from Lubbock area schools.

At IDRA, education justice demands that every child has access to excellent public schools that nurture their humanity, honor their identities and cultures and prepare them to thrive in college, career and life.

We at IDRA believe in the inherent value of all children and the power and promise of public education as a critical public good (Craven, 2025). Accordingly, education justice rests on five key principles.

1. Public education is a human right. IDRA means what we have said ever since the crushing 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case Rodríguez v. San Antonio ISD that led to IDRA’s founding: Access to equal educational opportunity is sacred, and our laws should expand, not limit, that opportunity for all children (Goodman, 2023).
2. Students are the primary stakeholders in education and must help shape the policies that govern their schools. Young people must have meaningful opportunities to shape the policies and practices that govern their schools, transforming them from subjects of advocacy into leaders of it.
3. A community’s lived experience with law and policy is equally as valuable as legal knowledge and expertise. Students, families and educators are experts in education. As a result, legal advocates must seek out and respect this expertise.
4. Legal knowledge and resources should be accessible to everyone affected by education policy. We must equip students and their adult allies to advocate for themselves and each other in every space where education justice is deliberated and delivered.
5. Lasting change requires strong movements. No single lawsuit, policy victory or election alone can secure education justice. Enduring change requires a movement that bridges generations, organizations and communities. And movement leaders must cultivate the collective power necessary to defend public education and reimagine what our schools can become.

Movement Lawyering – A Powerful Strategy to Achieve Education Justice

Historian Robin D.G. Kelley, Ph.D., said: “Without new visions, we don’t know what to build, only what to knock down. We not only end up confused, rudderless and cynical, but we forget that making a revolution is not a series of clever maneuvers and tactics, but a process that can and must transform us” (2002).

Building on these principles, envisioning a new future for education justice requires legal and policy advocates to stand shoulder to shoulder with those most impacted.

Movement lawyering offers a powerful framework for such advocacy. Rather than treating communities as clients, it positions them as partners in developing legal strategies, shaping policy priorities and building collective power (Akbar et al., 2022; Medina Camiscoli, 2024).

Movement lawyering uses interconnected advocacy strategies inside and outside of formal spaces. Legal advocates committed to movement work proactively seek accountability to impacted communities and build long-term community power (Cummings, 2017).

Interconnected advocacy strategies: Effective advocacy intentionally combines strategic legal representation with policy reform, organizing, community education, research, strategic communications, coalition building and electoral advocacy so that each strategy reinforces the others.

Inside and outside of formal spaces: Movement lawyers work both within formal legal institutions and alongside communities in schools, neighborhoods, school board meetings, state agencies and other spaces where power is exercised and decisions are made.

Accountable to impacted communities: Movement lawyers seek to build authentic relationships and share legal knowledge with community members. Rather than serving as figureheads, movement lawyers co-create opportunities for meaningful participation and ensure that advocacy strategies reflect community priorities.

Building long-term community power: Success is measured not only by individual legal victories, but also by whether advocacy builds lasting community power. Movement lawyering focuses on strengthening democratic participation, transforming institutions and equipping future generations to continue advancing education justice long after a particular case or campaign has ended.

This vision of education justice draws from a long lineage of advocacy and organizing that has advanced civil rights and expanded democratic participation. It also charts a new path by recognizing students and families not simply as clients or beneficiaries of legal advocacy, but as co-leaders in transforming public education.

How IDRA Does Movement Lawyering

IDRA’s work addressing identity-based bullying demonstrates this approach in practice.

Working alongside students, families, the Lubbock NAACP and community partners, IDRA has supported a strong campaign to address racial bullying and discriminatory discipline in Lubbock, Texas. Together, we used local school board advocacy and federal civil rights complaints as a vehicle to demand change (IDRA, 2022; Lubbock NAACP & IDRA, 2022; IDRA, April 2023).

Through the process of co-creating legal demands to strengthen local schools, we translated community experiences into a comprehensive model policy that was ultimately filed as state-level legislation (Duggins-Clay & Lyons, 2024; Craven, 2023). And through our advocacy, we connected with other communities across the state that joined our efforts to advance the legislation (Senate Hispanic Caucus et al., 2025; IDRA, 2025a; IDRA, 2025b).

Inspired by this state-level advocacy, several communities across the state worked with IDRA to pass a version of the model policy at the school board level (Duggins-Clay & Ryan, 2026). This advocacy responded, in part, to student researchers reporting concerns about weak administrative attention to incidents of race and identity-based discrimination (Lund et al., 2024; IDRA, 2026a).

The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is the enforcement agency to ensure students’ equal access to education, including investigation of race-based discrimination like racial bullying. When the current federal administration began massive firing of employees, the Lubbock NAACP joined a national lawsuit challenging the policy (Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse, 2025).

When the U.S. Congress sought to better understand the impact of the administration’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and eliminate OCR, IDRA supported parents directly affected by discriminatory harassment and discipline in participating in a federal briefing with congressional staff (IDRA, 2026b).

In the meantime, we compiled these advocacy experiences into legal toolkits for students, parents, legal aid and pro bono attorneys, and volunteer advocates, creating a new generation of individuals with the knowledge and resources to pursue education justice.

Movement Lawyering for Lasting Change

As students return to school this fall, they deserve more than promises of safety. They deserve policies and practices that make those promises real.

Students must know their rights and be able to exercise them freely.  School districts must continually strengthen their policies and support systems. Educators must cultivate inclusive classrooms where every student feels both seen and valued. Parents, caregivers and community organizations must have strong pathways to partner with school systems and hold them accountable.

Movement lawyering reminds us that lasting change is not achieved by lawyers or policymakers alone. It is built through strong, community-wide partnerships. When those most impacted by education policy help shape the legal and policy strategies that govern their schools, education justice becomes a shared democratic practice.

Resources

Akbar, A., Simonson, J., & Ashar, S. (April 26, 2022). What Movements Do to Law. Boston Review.

Caldwell, A., Duggins-Clay, P., & Lyons, M. (June-July 2026). What the 2025-26 Supreme Court Term Means for Education Justice. IDRA Newsletter. 

Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. (March 24, 2025). National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. United States of America (U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland). Complaint.

Craven, M. (November-December 2025). A Vision for Education in 2025 and Beyond (Excerpt) Educational Opportunities in a Changing Federal Landscape. IDRA Newsletter.

Craven, M. (January 12, 2023). Schools Should Prioritize Prevention, Education, and Support Over Exclusionary Discipline in Cases of Identity-based Bullying and Harassment. IDRA Statement.

Cummings, S.L. (2017). Movement Lawyering. University of Illinois Law Review, 1645, 1689-716.

Duggins-Clay, P., & Lyons, M. (2024). IDRA Model Policy – Identity-based Bullying. IDRA.

Duggins-Clay, P., & Ryan, T. (February 2026). IDRA Celebrates School District Actions to Strengthen Bullying Prevention Policies. IDRA Newsletter.

Goodman, C.L. (March 2023). Families Insist on Equitable School Funding – Rodríguez v. San Antonio ISD Ruling 50 Years Ago Has Lasting Effects. IDRA Newsletter.

IDRA. (2026a). Report and Recommendations – Judson ISD Ad Hoc Committee on Conflict and Bullying.

IDRA. (June-July 2026b). Parents Describe the Real Impact of Decimated Office for Civil Rights. IDRA Newsletter.

IDRA. (April 23, 2025a). Preventing and Addressing Bullying and Harassment in Texas Public Schools: A Call to Support HB 1405/SB 1445.

IDRA. (April 2025b). Texas Students Face Hate Crimes and Harassment in Schools – Infographic. IDRA.

IDRA. (April 17, 2023). End Identity-based Bullying in Texas Schools – News Conference for Hearing on HB 4625.

IDRA. (December 13, 2022). IDRA, Lubbock NAACP join Slaton and Lubbock Families in Demanding End to School-Based Racial Discrimination.

Kelley, R.D.G. (2002). Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Beacon Press.

Lubbock NAACP & IDRA (December 2022). Resolving Racial Discrimination Issues in Lubbock-Cooper ISD.

Lund, M., Moore, K., Peralta de Jesús, J., & Selvaraju, S. (September 2024). The Intersections of Culturally Responsive Education and School Discipline – A Youth Participatory Action Research Case Study of Texas Public Schools. IDRA.

Medina Camiscoli, S. (2024). Youth Movement Law: The Case for Interpreting the Constitution with Mobilized Youth. University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, 26, 1558.

Senate Hispanic Caucus, IDRA, & Texas Legislative Black Caucus. (April 29, 2025). Texas Must Do More to Prohibit and Prevent Bullying in Schools – Advocates Call on the Legislature to Protect Students from Bullying and Harassment. IDRA.

White, C., & Duggins-Clay, P. (July 2026). Collusive Litigation Strategy Dismantles Texas Dream Act & Creates Roadmap for Other Policies. IDRA Newsletter.

Paige Duggins-Clay, J.D., is IDRA’s chief legal analyst (paige.duggins-clay@idra.org). Makiah Lyons, J.D., is IDRA’s staff attorney (makiah.lyons@idra.org). Tionna Ryan, J.D., is a Texas Law Postgraduate Public Interest Fellow hosted by IDRA (tionna.ryan@idra.org).

FAQs

What is movement lawyering?
Movement lawyering is an approach to legal advocacy that treats impacted communities as partners in developing legal strategies, shaping policy priorities and building collective power. It combines legal work with strategies such as policy reform, organizing, community education, research, communications and coalition building.

How is movement lawyering different from traditional legal advocacy?
Movement lawyering emphasizes accountability to impacted communities and long-term community power. Lawyers work alongside students, families and community members rather than treating them only as clients or beneficiaries of legal advocacy.

What are IDRA’s five principles of education justice?
IDRA’s five principles are that public education is a human right; students are the primary stakeholders in education and should help shape school policies; community experience is as valuable as legal expertise; legal knowledge and resources should be accessible; and lasting change requires strong movements.

How does IDRA use movement lawyering?
IDRA works alongside students, families and community partners to combine legal advocacy with policy change, community education and organizing. Its work addressing identity-based bullying in Texas has included school board advocacy, federal civil rights complaints, model policies, state legislation and legal toolkits that help communities advocate for students’ rights.

[© 2026, IDRA. This article originally appeared in the August 2026 edition of the IDRA Newsletter. Permission to reproduce this article is granted provided the article is reprinted in its entirety and proper credit is given to IDRA and the author.]