Executive Director & Co-Founder, School Justice Project

Claire Nilsen Blumenson, Esq. School Justice Project, Executive Director & Co-Founder Education: B.A., Wesleyan University; M.A., Pace University, J.D., University of Virginia Law Claire is the Executive Director & Co-Founder of School Justice Project (“SJP”), a DC-based nonprofit organization that provides special education legal services to older court-involved students with disabilities. SJP intervenes at the “deep end” of the school-to-prison pipeline, working with students ages 18-22 to enforce their special education rights and protect their liberty interests. After teaching 3rd and 4th grade, Claire went to law school to pursue education law and juvenile justice. After graduating, Claire spent two years at the DC Public Defender Service as a 2011 Equal Justice Works Fellow. Through the Fellowship, she worked as a special education attorney inside DC’s secure juvenile facility, representing older students with disabilities (ages 18-22) who had been committed to the custody of DC's juvenile justice agency. To continue, develop, and expand this work, Claire co-founded and launched School Justice Project in 2013 with friend and colleague, Sarah Comeau. Claire received her BA from Wesleyan University, majoring in government, sociology, and psychology. During her time with Teach For America, she received her MA in Teaching from Pace University. In 2011, she received her JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. She is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. In 2017, Claire began teaching a weekly juvenile justice seminar at The George Washington University Law School