Daniel J. Losen

Daniel J. Losen, J.D., M. Ed., is the Director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies (CCRR) at UCLA’s Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles (CRP). He has worked at the CRP since 1999, when it was affiliated with Harvard Law School, where he has also been a lecturer on law. His work concerns the impact of law and policy on the rights of children of color, children with disabilities and language minority students to equal educational opportunity. A great deal of his work has focused on addressing racial disproportionality in special education, graduation rates, and school discipline. On these and related topics he: conducts law and policy research; publishes books, reports, and articles; has testified before the U.S. Congress and the United Nations; helps draft model legislation; and provides guidance to policymakers, educators and civil rights advocates. As an independent consultant Losen also has extensive experience working with states and large districts across the nation committed to pursuing remedies to problems of racial disproportionality.

He is also the co-author of several widely cited empirical reports on disparities in school discipline including: Are We Closing the School Discipline Gap (2015) which provides empirical analysis of discipline rates for every school district in the nation at the elementary and secondary school levels. Readers interested in finding out about suspension rates and discipline disparities in their school district are encouraged to visit CCRR’s web-tool at www.schooldisciplinedata.org where the most recent CCRR reports and other relevant information can also be found.

Before pursuing his law degree, Losen taught in public schools for ten years, including work as a school founder of an alternative public school.