Youth Law News

July-September 2009

_{VOL. XXVIII NO. 3}

NCYL in the News!

Check out recent media coverage of NCYL and its work.

Mental Health

Op-ed, San Francisco Chronicle, on Access to Mental Health Care for "Out-of-County" Foster Youth:

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Foster youths need access to mental health care

By Zahra Hayat and Patrick Gardner
Elise was placed in foster care at the age of 13, after being raped in her home by a man her mother knew. Just days later, Elise had to testify in her mother's presence about the rape and her mother's prostitution and drug addiction. The most resilient adult would struggle to cope with such trauma. Yet, Elise was unable to get any therapy or counseling for several months. Why? Because she was placed in a foster home outside the county where she lived.

Letter to the Editor, The New York Times,

August 16, 2009

Young, Mentally Ill and Behind Bars

To the Editor:
While thorough in describing the plight of mentally ill youth, your article does not describe emerging innovations.

For example, juvenile mental health courts and legal services lawyers in California have joined together to divert mentally ill youth from detention. These nonadversarial courts offer intensive case management and link youth to community-based mental health services so they can safely return home. The legal services lawyers expand access to critical resources like Medicaid, special education and disability benefits by enforcing existing legal rights to adequate mental health treatment and supports. Providing intensive treatment in the home is cheaper, more effective and more humane than detention.

Juvenile mental health courts are an important innovation to reduce detention of youth with mental illness, but they are not a solution. Only by providing adequate mental health services to every child in America will we end the practice of using juvenile jails to warehouse mentally ill youth.

Patrick Gardner
Fiza Quraishi
The writers are, respectively, the deputy director and a legal fellow at the National Center for Youth Law.

Teen Health Rights

Op-ed, Modesto Bee, on students' right to confidential medical leave during school hours:

Friday, Aug. 21, 2009

Debate rages over excused absences for students

Board members must follow law and adopt state-mandated policy
By Rebecca Gudeman
On Monday, the Modesto City Schools board will decide whether to adopt Policy 5113, which would bring the district into compliance with state law by requiring local schools to excuse students for certain critical health appointments confidentially.

Child Welfare

Story in the Auburn (CA) Journal about foster youth Dalton Dyer, whose story became national news when NCYL defended his right — and the right of all California foster youth — to play high school sports and participate in other extracurricular activities without additional requirements or paperwork not required of students who are not in foster care. September 9, 2009

Dalton Dyer a hit on, off the field

: Photo: Ben Furtado/Auburn Journal

Heroic Hillman

By Todd Mordhorst, Journal Sports Editor

Dalton Dyer expected to get high-fives from his Placer High teammates and coaches on the football field last fall. It turns out he's a bigger hero to thousands of foster youth and social workers all over California.

The 17-year-old Placer High senior was thrust into a spotlight he never imagined last fall when his court case transformed the Hillmen's football season and changed laws regarding foster youths' access to extracurricular programs in California.

Dyer is flourishing in his new role as an advocate for foster youth all over the state. He was a guest speaker and served on panels at several conferences for foster youth and social workers this summer with the National Center for Youth Law, the Oakland-based organization that handled his case.
Dyer is thankful his case led to positive changes for fellow foster children and more exposure to the issues they face. But it's football season again and he's eager to get out on the field, where he expresses himself best.