Child Welfare

At the Children’s Law Center, this area of the law finds our attorneys handling a wide range of cases, including:

• Care & Protection (C&P) matters, in which the Department of Children & Families (DCF) seeks removal of children due to allegations of abuse and/or neglect. In such cases, CLCM attorneys represent the children, many of whom often end up in state foster care. Through care & protection cases, Law Center attorneys also may find themselves representing their child clients in “termination of parental rights” matters, adoption proceedings, guardianship cases, visitation hearings, and related actions

• Child Requiring Assistance (CRA) cases, where CLCM lawyers represent youth between the ages of 6 and 18 who allegedly engage in certain “offenses” such as failing to abide by “reasonable” rules at home or in school, repeatedly running away from home, being habitually truant from school, or engaging in activity that is deemed by the state to render them “sexually exploited.”

• “Extended foster care” also known as “Permanency Young Adult” (PYA) cases involve foster children who reach majority age (18) and become eligible to receive additional years of care and support from DCF as they transition into adulthood (up to age 22 or 23). In these cases, youth “sign themselves in” to state care through “voluntary placement agreements” as they near age 18. Once they reach age 18 and notify the court of their intention to sign themselves in, a case for a Permanency Young Adult action is launched within the Juvenile Court.

• “Aging out” or “transition age” youth are those foster children who—often having spent years in state care—find themselves, at age 18, without an appropriate caretaker and with no interest in extended DCF foster care, and decide, in essence, to strike out on their own. These youth often are ill-equipped to care for themselves at age 18, whether due to a lack of appropriate “transition planning” before reaching majority age, their contending with emotional or mental health limitations, or their encountering a lack of sufficient systemic supports from the state. CLCM lawyers often provide a range of individual and systemic advocacy to this youth population to enhance their chances of securing favorable life outcomes.

• “Care and Responsibility” matters are filed by DCF in the Probate & Family courts when the agency has assumed voluntary care of a child from parents for reasons unrelated to parental unfitness (such as the children having extreme emotional or behavioral disorders requiring placement outside the home, etc.) and upon the expiration of a period of time in care—normally 6 months—the child is deemed by DCF that he/she requires additional time in state care. A legal advocate from the CLCM, assigned by the court, can see to it that the child’s voice is heard in these matters, including being a part of decision-making for his/her future.

School stability for foster children is another issue that CLCM lawyers seek to advance through its legal advocacy before the juvenile courts and state administrative agencies such as the DCF. The CLCM’s advocacy in this area reflects its recognition that education--key to short and long-term success for any child--is especially critical to life outcomes for abused and neglected children. This school stability issue intersects the CLCM’s work in both the child welfare and education realms.