Advocates for Justice in Education
Washington, D.C.
Katharine Bohrs is a Skirnick Public Interest Fellow at Advocates for Justice in Education (AJE) in Washington, D.C. At AJE, she will provide direct legal services and know-your-rights mobilization in an effort to stave the school-to-prison pipeline in D.C. schools. She will also advocate alongside students and families for systemic reforms to dismantle the pipeline. During her time at HLS, Katharine participated in the Education Law Clinics, which included an externship with Massachusetts Advocates for Children. She was Co-President of Advocates for Education during her 2L and 3L years, and served on the Editorial Board of the Civil Rights – Civil Liberties Law Review. Katharine spent her summers working at the plaintiff’s firm Krokidas & Bluestein LLP, and at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in its Educational Opportunities Project. Prior to law school, she worked in a number of public school districts in Massachusetts and the Los Angeles area to provide academic and behavioral support for students, including as City Year Americorps member. She has interned in both the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families and in the U.S. Department of Education to analyze legislation, its requirements for government actors, and its outcomes for students. During her internship with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, she supported litigation related to school desegregation, language translation rights in schools, school push-out through disciplinary practices, and more. She received her Bachelor’s in Sociology from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she earned a departmental award for her senior thesis analyzing Massachusetts’ English-only legislation for English Language Learners in public schools.