: Photo by Paul Herzoff

NCYL joins A Million Hoodies for Trayvon Martin

We stand in solidarity with those who oppose racial profiling and who seek the truth about the killing of an unarmed Black teenager. The same racism that underlies Trayvon Martin's tragic death affects NCYL's clients and thousands of youth nationwide. It results in a disproportionate number of youth of color being stopped, arrested, and locked up; suspended and expelled from school; and removed from their families and placed in foster care. We hope the national conversation on race sparked by this tragedy will continue long after the story has left the news.

Indiana To Create Statewide Foster Youth Education Program

Program Modeled on National Center for Youth Law's Foster Youth Education Initiative

May 15, 2012 - The Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) has announced the creation of FosterEd: Indiana, a statewide program to improve the educational success of children in foster care. The DCS program will employ 16 education specialists and a statewide manager to ensure foster children receive the educational opportunities they need to succeed in school, and in life.

NCYL Wins Major Victory for Las Vegas Foster Children

May 4, 2012 - The National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) won a major victory today on behalf of foster children in Clark County (Las Vegas), Nevada. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned a lower court’s dismissal of the foster care reform case brought by NCYL on behalf of Clark County's abused and neglected children, ruling that these children have a constitutional right to safety and adequate medical care. The appeals court also said that the county, and county and state officials, are liable if they fail to ensure that those constitutional rights are protected.

NCYL Staff Member Ethel Oden-Brown Wins Merit Award

NCYL Legal Secretary Ethel Louise ("Lou") Oden-Brown has won an Award Of Merit from the Legal Assistance Association of California for her "exemplary work in improving access to justice!" The LAAC Awards of Merit are the legal services community's opportunity to recognize the importance of legal services and to particularly honor a few of the many who have made contributions to the field during the last year.

NCYL Launches Project to Stem Overuse of Psychotropic Medications on Foster Children

NCYL has initiated a national project on the psychotropic medication of foster children. Every day, more than 20,000 foster children in the US are medicated with psychotropic drugs, sometimes to a point of sedation that leaves them lethargic, "zonked out," and blocked from the normal activities of growing up.

Stopping Victimization of Vulnerable Children in CA

Spearheading Efforts to Protect Children with Histories of Abuse and Neglect from Sexual Exploitation

By Kate Walker

The thought of a 12-year-old girl being sold to older men to perform sex acts on a nightly basis is deeply disturbing. Even more troubling is the fact that it happens every day in cities throughout this country.

Interim Agreement Reached in WA Lawsuit Over Children's Mental Health

More than a year of negotiation with the State yields a collaborative agreement to suspend litigation and build a framework for reform of the mental health system for children on Medicaid.

Two state agencies and several advocacy groups have reached an interim agreement to develop a framework for reforms in the Washington state mental health system for children and youth enrolled in Medicaid. The agreement temporarily suspends litigation in a class action lawsuit filed against the Department of Social and Health Services and the Health Care Authority. View press release

Appeals Courts Reject Challenges to Child Welfare Consent Decrees

Foster children won two important victories in federal appeals court last year. In a pair of child welfare reform cases, courts upheld longstanding federal consent decrees that mandated crucial reforms to child welfare and foster care systems in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

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Al Jazeera Interviews NCYL Attorney Michael Harris on Juvenile Life Without Parole

NCYL is committed to implementing a CA law that mandates public access to files of children who have died of abuse and neglect. In this story out of Kern County, CA, which has had a series of recent child deaths, NCYL Attorney Bill Grimm tells why the law is so critical to children's safety.
Child Deaths: Who's Protecting Our Children?
17 KGET News, Feb. 23, 2012
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" ... in the case of foster youth, California would be making a big mistake in abandoning a program that has been helping more than 40,000 young people navigate through school bureaucracies without traditional parent support."
Editorial: State Should Keep Funding Foster Youth Services
San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 15, 2012

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Ensuring foster children receive the education support they need.

A site for all people helping children and youth in California's foster care system succeed in school.

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A site designed to help CA adolescent health care providers understand the many laws that affect their work, with a focus on reproductive health.

_{Photographs that appear on this website were produced independently of articles and information, and bear no relationship to cases or incidents discussed therein.}