Education Law Center - PA

What it reported doing in 2024

The Education Law Center-PA's (ELC-PA) mission is to ensure access to a quality public education for all children in Pennsylvania. Over the past 50 years, ELC-PA has been a known resource for parents, child-serving professionals, and advocates in Pennsylvania. Our principal strategies include direct representation, impact litigation, policy advocacy, community engagement, and strategic communications. With offices in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, we work statewide to provide immediate relief to individual students while also advancing systems-level reforms that benefit thousands of underserved students, guided by our three priority areas: 1) Ensuring Equal Access to Quality Public Schools: ELC-PA addresses real-time educational barriers and systemic concerns impacting the educational experiences of underserved student populations. Our focus is improving education access for children living in poverty, children with disabilities, children of color, children in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, children experiencing homelessness, multilingual learners, LGBTQ+ youth, and children at the intersection of multiple underserved identities. Our Helpline is the only free legal service solely focused on helping students access a quality public education in Pennsylvania, providing information, advice, referrals, legal consultation, and direct representation. We also produce publications and conduct trainings to help parents, caregivers, and child-serving professionals advocate on behalf of the children in their care. 2) Advocating for Fair Education Funding: ELC-PA works with statewide and local partners to push for the changes needed to address Pennsylvania's school funding crisis. We filed a lawsuit against the Commonwealth over a decade ago for failure to fund public education under the state constitution. We won this case in a decisive 2023 victory in Commonwealth Court, in an order and opinion finding education is a fundamental right and deeming the state's current funding system unconstitutional and discriminatory. Now, we are focused on the remedy. Our litigation is complemented by policy advocacy, including budget advocacy through the PA Schools Work (PASW) coalition, as well as educating policymakers on the state's education funding system, our lawsuit, and the necessary funding increases to ensure the state is adequately and equitably funding public education. 3) Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline: ELC-PA aims to end school pushout by eliminating exclusionary discipline policies that disproportionately harm Black and Brown youth, students with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ and gender-expansive youth, with a focus on advancing the rights of Black girls. In addition to confronting discriminatory policies, we advocate for schools to adopt research-based interventions that will improve school climates and build inclusive, antiracist, and affirming schools. In the juvenile justice system, we aim to ensure that children can access the full range of public education programs, in part by advocating for the structures necessary to improve oversight of education in residential facilities. We also provide individual representation when students are excluded from the classroom without due process. OUR IMPACT We have seen monumental wins for students across Pennsylvania as a result of ELC-PA's 50 years of advocacy. Recent wins include: Secured a second year of historic new investments in Pennsylvania's most underfunded schools, bringing us closer to an equitable and constitutionally compliant school funding system mandated by the landmark decision in our Commonwealth Court case. Pushed back on federal efforts to undermine public education, including efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, deprive public schools of essential funding that supports our most underserved students, and drastically reduce federal enforcement of anti-discrimination laws. ELC-PA partners with organizations across the country to fight back

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 51.1%; rating input score 51
• Program expense ratio: 73.3%; rating input score 73
• Fundraising efficiency: $14.85 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 35.3%; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.53; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 27.8%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 37th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 15% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 13.3% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings