Policy Recommendations for Youth Voice and Equal Education
Claire Kiel
12/27/2025
Country: USA
UN SDGs: 3, 4, 10, 16, and 17
Context:
As a young girl with chronic conditions, I faced discrimination in the private school system after a prolonged hospital stay that caused me to miss school. Because I missed class due to medical treatment and procedures, I received extra assignments and late grades from the school administration. Despite maintaining a GPA above 4.0 in honors classes, the administration considered my medically excused absences “unfair” to other students and penalized me without providing adequate accommodations or legal repercussions. Ultimately, the school told me I was “too sick to accommodate” and kicked me out of the school. My experience highlights a problem that affects millions of young girls seeking education: private schools are exempt from disability accommodations and discrimination laws set under Section 504, leaving millions of students with chronic illnesses vulnerable to injustice, discrimination, and denial of education. Youth with chronic conditions, an unseen disability, are often overlooked.
Recommendations:
1) Protect students with chronic illnesses from discrimination by administrators in school.
Problem: Many private schools can legally discriminate against students with invisible disabilities, such as chronic conditions, by denying academic accommodations, penalizing absences, and imposing unequal academic standards.
Action: Disability rights offices, Ministries of Education, accreditation agencies, and governments could collaborate to establish a mandatory non-discrimination and accommodation policy for all schools, including private and religious institutions. Policies should allow flexible attendance for medically excused absences without fear of academic repercussions or institutional denial.
Indicator: Within the next five years, all educational institutions should codify accommodation policies; reported cases of disability-related discrimination should decrease; and schools should adopt a training program on chronic illness, disability awareness, and inclusion.
2) Close the legal gap that denies students access to accommodations.
Problem: Laws often exclude private schools from accountability, leaving youth with chronic conditions without legal protection.
Action: Legislatures should amend education, accommodation, and disability laws to mandate that all schools, including private ones, provide accommodations, protect against discrimination, and establish monitoring systems to ensure that a child is not denied the fundamental right to education.
Indicator: Within the next five years, legislators should pass amendments to relevant laws, implement oversight, establish transparent compliance-reporting programs, and expand legal solutions for chronically ill youth.
3) Ensure youth participation and involvement in policymaking.
Problem: Youth are often excluded from decisions that affect them directly, such as laws on education and youth disability rights policies.
Action: Governments, school boards, and policymaking institutions should establish youth advisory councils (ages 15-18) to give young people a voice in policies affecting education and child justice. Youth aged 15-18 should also be included in more decision-making forums, like the UN and legislative sessions.
Indicator: Youth advisory councils should be established at the national, local, and global levels, with at least 30% youth representation and a youth voice reflected in policies and published reports.
Citations:
Women, UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against. “General Recommendation No. 33 on Women’s Access to Justice.” Digitallibrary.un.org, 3 Aug. 2015, digitallibrary.un.org/record/807253?ln=en&v=pdf.
United Nations. “OHCHR | General Comment No. 24 (2019) on Children’s Rights in the Child Justice System.” OHCHR, 18 Sept. 2019, www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and-recommendations/general-comment-no-24-2019-childrens-rights-child.
UNICEF. Guidance on Child and Adolescent Participation as Part of Phase III of the Preparatory Action for a European Child Guarantee. Dec. 2021.
Dragoo, Kyrie E., and Abigail A. Graber. “The Rights of Students with Disabilities under the IDEA, Section 504, and the ADA.” Congress.gov, 2024, www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48068.
Disclamer:
This paper is based off personal experience and is not a publication of the United Nations nor is it comissioned by any related organization.
@ Claire Kiel 2025