Giving every child a voice
Providing quality advocacy and legal services to low-income children and youth
Since its inception in 1977, the CLCM's comprehensive litigation services, trainings, technical assistance and broader policy work have benefited tens of thousands of disadvantaged children and families across the Commonwealth.
What We Do
Education
CLCM attorneys provide comprehensive legal representation and related litigation assistance to public school students in a range of education matters, including school discipline, homelessness, special education, and challenges to student enrollment and student privacy. Among those initiatives is a medical-legal partnership between CLCM and MGB-Chelsea Health Center, designed to improve outcomes for child patients by simultaneously addressing health and legal challenges, and a statewide project addressing systemic barriers impacting the right to high quality education for all students.
Immigration
Through our Immigrant Children’s Justice Project (ICJP), our attorneys represent youth, most victims of trauma in their homelands, in special immigrant juvenile (SIJ), asylum, temporary protected status, UVisa, DACA, and related cases. Consistent with the CLCM’s holistic advocacy, our attorneys also provide litigation assistance to these children in several collateral matters such as guardianships, education, and health insurance.
Family Integrity
CLCM’s Family Integrity Practice provides zealous advocacy to children and youth living in foster care, as well as those at risk of being taken into foster care. CLCM also represents young adults aged 18 to 22 years old who have “aged out of” foster care. Courts in Essex County appoint CLCM attorneys who are certified by the state's Committee for Public Counsel Services' (CPCS) Children and Family Law (CAFL) Program to represent children in these matters.
Youth Justice
CLCM’s Youth Justice practice provides zealous representation through client-directed and holistic advocacy when children and youth are in trouble with the law. Courts appoint CLCM attorneys, who are certified by the state's Committee for Public Counsel Services' (CPCS), to represent children and youth at the trial level in Essex County and at the appellate level statewide.