Youth At Risk Initiative

Welcome to the Commission on Youth at Risk

Features

Background

Program Highlights

Resources

Forthcoming Article Series on Representing Juvenile Status Offenders

The American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law (ABA) is currently developing an online article series and resource center on how attorneys can best represent juvenile status offenders. This series builds upon the ABA’s ongoing efforts to improve outcomes for this population of at-risk youth, through its publications, conferences and policy resolutions and will be available by the end of 2009. There will be six articles drafted by expert legal consultants identified by the ABA. Articles will cover issues ranging from the applicability of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) to how to access early intervention and diversion services for juvenile status offenders.

The topics for the series include:

Overview of the JJDPA and What the Act Means for Practitioners
Who are Status Offenders and How to Work with Them
Accessing Intervention Services and Avoiding Deeper Involvement in the Court System
Preparing for Trial and Contempt Proceedings
Transferring Cases between Status Offense, Abuse/Neglect and Delinquency Dockets
Special Education and Disability Rights of Juvenile Status Offenders

In addition, the ABA’s online resource center will offer information about different state approaches and laws as well as video interviews of experts from multiple disciplines discussing legal advocacy for this population.

For more information about this project, please see www.abanet.org/child/jso.shtml

Contact: Jessica Kendall, Esq.

This Just In...

The American Bar Association Section of Litigation, Young Lawyers Division, and Youth at Risk Commission presents a FREE on-line Audio Teleconference on Fostering Connection to Success Act: Moving from Act to Action

The Fostering Connections to Success Act, H.R. 6893, was signed into law on October 7, 2008 and will become effective over the course of the next two fiscal years. The Act puts into place some of the most sweeping federal foster care reforms in over a decade. This program will examine the sections of the Act that will impact the work of judges and lawyers for children. The new law will open the door to federal support for youth through the age of 21, ending the trend, in many states, to push youth out of foster care at the ill-prepared age of 18. Other provisions from the Act that will be outlined and discussed in this teleconference include the ability to:

Find, approve, and support relative caregivers
Increase efforts to preserve sibling ties
Mandate coordination and improved oversight of education and health needs
Encourage adoptions
Provide federal assistance and protection to native American and Alaskan native children
Preserve educational stability and enhance education support
Support the training of lawyers and judges

Our Expert Faculty

Howard Davidson, Director, ABA Center on Children and the Law, Washington, DC
Marisol Garcia, Solo Practitioner, Law Office of Marisol Garcia, Lowell, MA
Honorable Michael Nash, Presiding Judge, Los Angeles Juvenile Court, Los Angeles, CA
Jenny Weisz (Moderator), Tuff University, Department of Child Development and Urban Policy Newton, MA