All families have the right to family integrity—parents’ rights to the care, custody, and control of their children, and children’s rights to live with their families and not in state custody. The state threatens this right when it investigates a family for alleged neglect or abuse, or seeks to separate a family and place children in state custody, or subjects a family to jurisdiction of the family court. The families that face such threats are overwhelmingly poor and disproportionately Black and Brown.
In the Family Defense Clinic, student attorneys defend families against intervention by the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) and the family courts by representing parents and other caregivers accused of neglecting or abusing their children. Student attorneys defend against those allegations, and advocate for supports and services to help parents reunify, for families to remain intact whenever possible, for prompt reunification when ACS or the court separates families, and for the state to remove parents from the State Central Registry (so parents can obtain certain employment).
Family Defense Clinic
The Family Defense Clinic advocates for parents subject to surveillance and family separations by the state. Students work closely with clients, develop and implement litigation strategy, and work to defend families’ right to stay together free of unnecessary state interference.
Student attorneys engage in vigorous advocacy on behalf of their clients in Family Court and administrative hearings, focusing on the power hierarchies involved in these cases and the role of this legal system in individual families and communities. The clinic seminar focuses on skills and substantive law necessary for case representation. Student attorneys also explore the role of lawyers, the function of this legal system, and the different directions change efforts may take, including investigation of a dynamic field with multiple voices for change.