The Domestic Violence and School Safety Workgroup (DVASS) is a coalition of legal services attorneys practicing in the areas of family law and education law. The group is dedicated to exploring ways that the law can help children who have been affected by domestic violence or homelessness feel and be physically and emotionally safe at school.
DVASS has been actively engaged in a variety of education and outreach activities. For example, several members of DVASS were authors of the publication Educational Rights of Children Affected by Homelessness and/or Domestic Violence, published by Massachusetts Advocates for Children in 2006. This publication, like later DVASS community legal education materials, provides strategies and legal information in four legal areas involving domestic violence and school safety - the rights of homeless children and youth, access to school records, restraining orders, and the rights of children with special educational needs - to help support and protect children at school. Members of DVASS have presented community legal education trainings on these topics. DVASS has also developed a training presentation to accompany the Educational Rights publication and have conducted several trainings to interested groups throughout Massachusetts.
DVASS created the material posted in the Domestic Violence and Schools section of this website (masslegalhelp.org).
The newest material on the site is a series of checklists for school officials and parents based on the strategies outlined in the Educational Rights publication. The checklists are designed to be a technical assistance tool for administrators who are interested in implementing policies within their schools designed to keep children affected by domestic violence or homelessness safe.
For further information contact Jeff Wolf (jwolf@mlri.org)
Produced by Massachusetts legal services' Domestic Violence and School Safety Workgroup Created August, 2007