Background

Claire Raj is a Professor of Law with a focus on special education law.  She directs the Education Rights Clinic where second and third year law students assist families of children with disabilities in accessing educational services. Professor Raj’s scholarship has addressed topics such as: inequalities in access to special education services among racial and ethnic subgroups, disparities in discipline of students with disabilities, and the impacts of state and federal voucher policies on students with disabilities.  Her scholarship has appeared in the Emory Law Journal, UCLA Law Review, Arizona State Law Journal, and elsewhere.

Before joining the University of South Carolina School of Law, Professor Raj coordinated the Equal Justice Program at Howard University School of Law in Washington, DC.  In that role, she directed the Externship Program, taught seminars in Public Interest Lawyering, and coordinated pro bono opportunities, including Alternative Spring Break trips to assist in post-Katrina relief efforts in New Orleans.  She also coordinated the law school’s Marshall Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, a clinical program where law students taught constitutional law and juvenile justice in local public high schools.  She was previously a staff attorney with the Children’s Law Center, a non-profit in Washington, DC, where she represented children in the foster care system.

Education

• J.D. (2003) Case Western Reserve University School of Law
• B.A. (2000) University of Rochester

Courses Taught

• Education Rights Clinic (LAWS 751)
• Interviewing Counseling & Negotiation (LAWS 771)
• Parents, Children, and the State (LAWS 631)
• Special Education Law Seminar (LAWS 727)

Scholarship

• The Lost Promise of Disability Rights, 119 Mich. L. Rev. 993 (2021)
• The Promise and Peril of Using Disability Law as a Tool for School Reform, 94 Wash. L. Rev. 1831 (2019)
• Coerced Choice: School Vouchers and Students with Disabilities,68 Emory L.J. 1038 (2019)
• Disability, Discipline, and Illusory Student Rights, 65 UCLA L. Rev. 860 (2018)
• Claire Raj, Emily Suski, Endrew F.’s Unintended Consequences, 46 J.L. & Educ. 499 (2017)
  
• The Misidentification of Children with Disabilities: A Harm With No Foul, 48 Ariz. State L.J. 374 (2016)
• The Gap Between Rights and Reality: The Intersection of Language, Disability, and Educational Opportunity, 87 Temple L. Rev. 283 (2015)