Client Stories
Read along with how we can help.
Jesse - Bullying Advocacy
Emilia - Special Immigrant Juvenile Advocacy
Jesse is a cheerful, young 9-year-old who has been diagnosed with ADHD and adjustment disorder. While both conditions are addressed through his IEP (Individualized Education Program) at school, he also suffers from serious allergies and is therefore unable to eat food provided by the school cafeteria, instead bringing food from home each day. Because of his allergies, Jesse is also unable to play outside during recess for much of the year. Because of his behaviors, Y has unfortunately become the target of bullying at school, which has even led him to engage in self-harming behaviors.
Jesse’s family sought out the Children’s Law Center to help. When the CLCM attorney realized that Jesse’s mother had been repeatedly trying, without success, to engage the school to enact protections for her son against bullies, they went to work to document all of Jesse’s bullying incidents and ensured the district was fully aware of Jesse’s conditions, including his allergies. Most importantly, the attorney created a safety plan to protect Jesse’s wellbeing at school. As part of the plan, Jesse is guaranteed a safe place to enjoy lunch and recess each day with his true friends. The plan also allows for emotional support from adults Jesse trusts. Thanks to CLCM’s advocacy, Jesse has gone months without any serious bullying incidents, and he has been thriving emotionally and academically since.
Emilia was born in Haiti and lived with her mother and her two half-sisters in Port-au-Prince. Her parents were never married, and her mother received no financial support from her father. Because of this, Emilia’s mother struggled to support Emilia and her siblings.
Emilia’s father frequently drank excessively and would often become violent and unpredictable. Emilia experienced physical and emotional abuse from her father. Her mother was unable to protect her from this abuse, and Emilia also witnessed her father’s abuse towards her mother. Emilia also experienced abuse from her step-father, but she feared reporting the abuse to her mother because her mother was dependent on the financial support of her step-father.
In January 2010, Emilia’s home was badly damaged by the earthquake that struck Haiti. After their home was repaired, Emilia chose to move into her grandparents’ house because she feared returning to live with her step-father. When Emilia’s mother learned of the abuse, she did not take any action against her step-father, but she allowed Emilia to remain at her grandparents’ house rather than live with her mother and step-father. Emilia’s grandparents were elderly and eventually left Haiti so that her grandfather could receive medical care in the United States. In 2016, Emilia came to stay with her aunt in Massachusetts.
Emilia’s aunt contacted the Children’s Law Center in search of help for her niece. A CLCM attorney assisted Emilia’s aunt in obtaining legal custody of her in proceedings before the Essex County Probate and Family Court. The attorney also obtained special findings from the Probate and Family Court that allowed Emilia to apply for classification as a special immigrant juvenile under federal immigration law. This type of protection for children who have been abused, abandoned, or neglected by a parent put Keysha on track to permanent legal residence in the United States.
Emilia attended her local high school, where she excelled academically and as a member of the varsity volleyball team. She graduated in 2019. In January 2020 Emilia’s application for permanent residence was approved. With the grant of permanent legal status, Emilia will be able to pursue her goal of furthering her education and will be eligible to receive financial aid.
Sam - Education Advocacy
Sam is a third grade student with autism. Since kindergarten, his mother had been requesting that he be placed in a substantially separate classroom for children with autism. However, because of Sam’s above average academic skills, the school refused and kept him in a general education classroom. This classroom contained more than 20 children and was much too stimulating for Sam, who consistently refused to engage in any academic work and had multiple tantrums a day. Sam was falling further and further behind because he was unable to productively participate in any academic learning in this setting.
In addition, each time the school district met with Sam’s mother, staff employed every type of delay tactic, including refusing to meet because mother brought her CLCM attorney with her, even though she had provided advance written notice of same. At one point, school personnel pulled mother aside moments before an IEP Team meeting and threatened to call the Department of Children and Families; it clearly was an effort to intimidate the mother.
The CLCM attorney advocated for the school to move up Sam’s 3-year re-evaluation by nearly 7 months and also sought a trial period of implementation of an intensive behavioral support plan. The attorney also demanded a virtual IEP Team Meeting for the child, despite the school district initially refusing to hold the meeting during the COVID-19 school closure. At that meeting, it was made clear, based on teacher reports and data collected, that Sam needed a smaller, highly structured academic environment. The school district ultimately determined that Sam would start third grade in a substantially separate classroom with the option to join an inclusion classroom for academic instruction in subjects at which he excels, a plan deemed by the mother to best serve her son’s interests. His mother says that without her CLCM attorney, the school would have continued to ignore her and push Sam through from grade to grade.
Liz - CRA Advocacy
A CLCM attorney was requested by the Juvenile Court to represent a child, Liz, in a CRA proceeding. Liz had a significant intellectual disability and several medical conditions that require the attention of medical specialists. She dropped out of school at age 16 because she felt that her-then high school on the North Shore was overwhelming and she was being bullied by other students due to her disabilities.
Shortly after assuming representation, the CLCM attorney helped Liz obtain more critical services through her Individualized Education Plan (IEP), and soon became a virtual lifeline for Liz, being summonsed by teachers to help her during the school day, usually to help de-escalate Liz and to resolve disputes that might otherwise result in disciplinary action against her.
Although Liz’s attendance was often affected by her school anxiety and medical appointments, she was making a gallant effort to pass her courses. When Covid-19 hit and the schools closed in March, learning remotely posed many challenges that she couldn’t overcome. Like many other students with disabilities, Liz struggled to learn new material remotely even with some on-line instruction. She had particular difficulties with the school remote learning software. Further, Liz had not received a Chromebook and was using an old tablet that further complicated access to learning.
The CLCM attorney advocated frequently with the director of special education and was able to get Liz a free Chromebook, as well as specialized instructions for her to more easily access her lessons. The attorney also was able to successfully negotiate modifications to Liz’s new IEP, taking into account the difficulties presented by COVID learning. Finally, the CLCM attorney was able to access funds through two different social service agencies to provide Liz and her struggling family of six with funds to pay some of their back rent and to purchase groceries. The attorney learned that due in part to her legal advocacy her client, Liz, was promoted to the 11th grade.
Bella - CLAVC Advocacy
Kelvin - Immigration Advocacy
Bella and her grandmother came to the CLCM for help enrolling in school on the North Shore after being denied educational access on more than five occasions. Bella moved to Massachusetts from out of state and, though she was a state resident, the grandmother did not have a formal legal claim to her 12 year-old granddaughter.
A CLCM attorney was ultimately able to get Bella enrolled in school. A second CLCM lawyer then began the process of helping the grandmother secure legal custody of the child through a Probate & Family Court guardianship, allowing the grandmother to become her “mom” at the beginning of January 2020. This legal vehicle not only helped solidify the child’s custodial status, but provided the 12 year old Bella with some peace of mind; her abusive biological mother living out of state had made threats to have her daughter returned to her care.
In addition to these two forms of legal advocacy, the CLCM counsel sprung into action after the onset of the COVID-19 crisis when her client, her guardian, and her great grandmother, who had come to live with them, were evicted from their residence, despite the eviction moratorium. CLCM was able to connect the client’s family with resources to help pay for housing and an entire apartment of new furniture (thanks to the incredible people at Mass Coalition for the Homeless).
Since the grandmother and granddaughter settled into their new home, the CLCM lawyer has also been able to assist in securing several months of free internet service provided by Comcast and successfully sought rental and grocery assistance through the United Way/ Lynn Cares community fund, set up to assist those adversely impacted by COVID-19.
Kelvin was born in a central African country where he lived with his mother. Kelvin’s parents were never married, and Kelvin grew up knowing very little about his father. Kelvin’s mother received no financial support from Kelvin’s father, and because of this she struggled to support Kelvin. Kelvin’s grandmother lived in the United States and sent money to Kelvin’s mother so Kelvin could attend a boarding school about an hour from where Kelvin’s mother lived.
Kelvin’s mother was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS before Kelvin was born, but she did not discuss her diagnosis with Kelvin, so he did not learn of his mother’s illness just before she passed away when Kelvin was thirteen years old.
After his mother’s death, Kelvin went to live with a family friend. His grandmother continued to send money to help support him, but he was no longer able to attend the boarding school. A short time later the friend moved away, and Kelvin lived with another friend who was a student from the public high school he attended.
Kelvin was tested for HIV and learned that he had contracted the disease from his mother at birth. Kelvin kept his diagnosis secret from friends and his roommate because of the widespread discrimination against HIV positive people in his homeland. During the time he lived there, Kelvin was not able to receive adequate medical care, and he became ill with malaria and tuberculosis. He was hospitalized for several weeks. In addition, the HIV treatment available in his home country was not as effective as that in other countries and often made him sick and weak.
In 2016, Kelvin’s grandmother arranged for Kelvin to stay with her where she was living in Massachusetts. After he arrived in Massachusetts, Kelvin was able to receive treatment and access to specialized care and more advanced HIV medication, which improved his health greatly. Kelvin enrolled at his local high school where he excelled academically and played on the varsity soccer team.
In 2017 Kelvin was referred to the Children’s Law Center. A CLCM attorney promptly petitioned, and obtained special findings from, the Essex County Probate and Family Court that allowed Kelvin to apply for classification as a special immigrant juvenile under federal immigration law. This type of protection for children who have been abused, abandoned, or neglected by a parent put Kelvin on track to permanent legal residence in the United States.
Kelvin graduated from Lynn Classical High School in 2018, after which he participated in the Year Up professional and technical job training program.
In July 2020, Kelvin’s application for permanent residence was approved, with the expert legal help from his CLCM lawyer. With the grant of permanent legal status, Kelvin will be able to pursue his goal of furthering his education, will be eligible to receive financial aid, and will continue to receive the medical treatment and support that he so desperately needs.
Ana - Child Welfare Advocacy
Systemic Education Advocacy
A Children’s Law Center attorney represented Ana, an 18 year old young woman from Guatemala, since she entered DCF custody last year at age 17. She is an unaccompanied minor who initially was placed by the US Government at an aunt’s home in Massachusetts while her deportation case proceeded. The aunt ended up being abusive to Ana so the state DCF took custody of her.
After being in several foster homes, Ana subsequently moved in with a boyfriend and became pregnant. With an infant to care for, she began to experience domestic violence. Her DCF social worker gave Ana an ultimatum to go to a shelter or risk having her baby removed from her care. From her experiences in foster care, and her past trauma in Guatemala, she was terrified to go into a shelter and she did not want to lose custody of her baby.
Ana does not speak any English and she has a third grade education. She really needs to have information broken down and explained to her repeatedly before she fully understands how an agency like DCF functions and what her options are. The entire immigration, social service and local government here in the US are very scary and confusing for a young immigrant woman like Ana.
Fortunately, her CLCM attorney successfully advocated with DCF to allow Ana to find housing of her own instead of resorting to a shelter and without the threat of her baby being removed. Further, with the aid of a social service organization, One Can Help, the CLCM lawyer obtained a cell phone for Ana’s personal use to ensure that she could reach out to her support network for help if needed, and to search for employment and rooms for rent. Ana now lives with her baby in a different city from her child’s abusive father. Thanks at least in part to her CLCM attorney, DCF is helping her pay for a room in a safe house while she continues to look for employment
In 2019, a pediatric social worker at MGH contacted the MLP attorney to report a troubling pattern they noticed at a specific local middle school. The social worker reported that at least five students with borderline intellectual functioning and ADHD had all been denied eligibility for an IEP because their full scale IQ scores were only 1-3 points above the commonly accepted limit for an intellectual disability.
Instead, these children were all placed on a 504 Plan with accommodation for their ADHD. Incredibly, several children had school-sponsored academic and psychological evaluations that recommended intensive academic interventions in a highly structured setting – but had still been denied.
The MLP attorney spoke with the families of all the identified students, most of whom had parents whose primary language was not English. Four of the families were interested in more services for their child. The MLP attorney worked with community health workers to support the families and advocated directly with school administrators to review the previous decisions and documentation.
Two of the four children are now in substantially separate classrooms, a third has been placed in an out-of-district specialized school, and the fourth is receiving more intensive IEP services.
Jasmine - Education & Transportation Advocacy
Jasmine is an 11-year-old child who is wheel-chair bound, non-communicative, and medically complex. She lives in an apartment on the second-floor of a building without an elevator. Since they arrived in the U.S., her mother carried her down the stairs to the bus. However, in the spring of 2019, her mother was no longer able to carry her down the stairs due to a terminal medical condition and her dad’s work schedule does not allow him to be home during pick up/drop off.
When Jasmine’s MGH nurse manager notified her school and asked for assistance in getting Jasmine out of her home and down the stairs to the awaiting school bus, the school district’s position was that Jasmine couldn’t get out of the house due to the mother’s medical issue, not the child’s disability – and therefore they did not need to provide assistance into or out of the home. The school district also failed to provide Jasmine with any in-home services, as set forth in her IEP.
The MLP Attorney initially consulted with Jasmine’s MGH nurse manager to secure her a therapeutic out-of-district placement at a specialized school. However, once this placement was determined, the school district again refused to provide additional assistance to get Jasmine out of her home and down to the bus, despite a Massachusetts special education regulation that appears to address this exact scenario.
The school district continued to refuse to provide transportation and sadly, during Jasmine’s mother passed away just before a scheduled IEP meeting.
Over several months, the MLP attorney negotiated a settlement with the district that included transportation assistance to her specialized school and a financial settlement to be used for any educational or therapeutic expense.