Closing Date: 8th July, 2024

Description:

The Juvenile Rights Practice of the A 501 Non-Profit Legal Aid Provider Based in New York City is seeking to sponsor a Fellowship applicant for the Fall 2025 class. JRP provides legal representation to children and youth in child welfare, youth justice and a variety of other related Family Court matters, as well as adolescent offenders in Youth Parts. JRP staff are members of an interdisciplinary team, which includes attorneys, social workers, paralegals, investigators, and support professionals in all five counties in New York City. The representation of children and youth is further supported by Special Litigation and Law Reform (SLLRU) and Appellate teams. Fellows will partner SLLRU, and multidisciplinary trial teams to address a systemic issue affecting JRP clients, primarily involving the child welfare and or youth justice systems. Applicants must have a heightened understanding of racial, economic, gender and LGBTQ+ inequities that our clients and their families experience whole interfacing with these systems.

Proposed fellowship topics may include, but not are not restricted to, these issues:

Immigration: A project to support newly arrived JRP clients and those with immigration needs. To meet the needs of this growing client population, the fellow will provide direct representation to JRP clients in Immigration Court, before USCIS, and in Family Court. The fellow will collaborate with ACS and parent defenders and assist JRP clients in applying for various forms of immigration relief including Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, asylum, and U-Visas. The fellow will also participate in systemic advocacy efforts as part of a partnership between JRP and Legal Aid's Immigration Law Unit to ensure early identification and engagement with this client population, as well as to detect and address systemic concerns. Finally, the fellow will conduct JRP-wide trainings and create comprehensive materials for JRP staff to use to strengthen their representation of immigrant clients.
Voluntary Placements: Address timeliness of assignment of counsel and hearings related to QRTP placements. This project will involve direct representation of clients in voluntary proceedings, legislative advocacy, training and work with stakeholders to streamline the process of assignment of counsel.
Family First: Assess whether ACS is complying with requirements of Family First 3 years after implementation. This project could involve an evaluation of whether the program models for QRTPs meet the federal requirements; whether the QI process has resulted in fewer children being placed in institutions; whether children are benefiting from services in QRTPs that are resulting in shorter lengths of stay in QRTPs; possible opportunity to draft legislation that would modify NYS implementing statute for QRTPs; representing clients placed in QRTPs and litigating QI placement decisions.
Children's Center: The Special Litigation and Law Reform Unit is actively working to mitigate the numerous harms that befall our clients who are held for long periods of time in the Children's Center (CC), a pre-placement shelter where some children (especially those with Americans with Disability Act (ADA) concerns, older youth, and sibling groups) are held for extended periods of time. Children placed in the CC are also subject to egregious physical, sexual, and emotional harm. We are seeking a fellow to work on a campaign to close/reduce reliance on the CC, including drafting legislation limiting length of stay in pre-placement shelters, developing a coalition to restrict its use, assisting in advocacy for individual clients, generating trainings for trial staff and advocating with City Council, ACS, and other stakeholders to change policies and practice at the CC.
Adoption Permanency: The fellow will provide pre- and post-adoption legal support with the goal of preventing broken adoptions by improving the adoption process and supporting families after adoptions occur. The fellow will educate administrators, judicial staff, and legislators on reforms which would support adopted youth and require attorneys to be assigned to children on prospective adoption dockets. The fellow will collaborate with agencies to increase mental health and post-adoption resources available for adopted children and families and will represent youth who return to court after experiencing a broken adoption.
Pre-court Race Equity Project: Address the disparity of representation of Black and Latinx children in the child welfare system. This project will focus on the phases of a child welfare case predating court. The fellow would draft legislation and/or propose policy reforms related to abuse and neglect reporting and investigations. The fellow would be tasked with collaborating with stakeholders, creating training, and proposing novel approaches to scale back the over-involvement of the child welfare system. The fellow would also identify existing or propose new ways for JRP to become involved with cases that have not yet been brought to court. The objective of early engagement is to reduce the number of child-welfare cases overall.
Education: This project will focus on exclusionary school discipline issues in New York City and in New York State. The fellow will study systems that have effectively minimized exclusionary school discipline (particularly for student populations that are disproportionately affected, including students of color, students with disabilities and LGBTQ+ students) The fellow will then create a roadmap of how New York City Public Schools can implement systems change, will develop a presentation on their findings to be presented to stakeholders, and to be proposed for presentation at a national conference. The fellow will work with NYC stakeholders, including NYCPS, families and other education advocates to develop a pilot program to effectuate that change. The fellow will advocate for improved due process procedures for New York City students facing suspension and expulsion hearings. In addition, the fellow will collaborate with a coalition of stakeholders working to pass the Judith Kaye Solutions Not Suspensions Act with an aim of minimizing the harm of exclusionary school discipline throughout New York State.
Education/Immigration: This project will focus on the needs of English Language Learners, particularly students who are newcomers to New York City. The fellow will pay particular attention to the needs of multilingual learners with disabilities and the district's responsibility to provide non-English speaking parents with information and services sufficient to allow their participation in decision making around the special education needs of their children. The fellow will investigate strategies, including informal advocacy, but also possible formal complaints to the Office of Civil Rights at the United States Department of Education, and New York State Department of Education to address New York City Public Schools' failure to properly provide multilingual learners with appropriate supports, including access to English as a New Language classes and bilingual education and bilingual special education programs.
Post disposition Delinquency Project: This project will focus on modification and extension of placements, revocation of aftercare, and transfers from OCFS to DOCCS (for adolescent offenders).

Essential Duties/Responsibilities:
The fellow will play an integral role in the work of The Legal Aid Society. The fellow's specific responsibilities will depend upon the project but may include:

the completion of at least one substantial research project or empirical study
Developing, maintaining, and reporting data on the Fellowship project
active participation in the practice area's client advocacy and litigation agenda
developing training materials, if needed on the subject matter
developing materials for social media use

Requirements:

Current 3L law student enrolled and in good standing.
Excellent oral and written communication skills
Excellent legal research and listening skills
Ability to effectively navigate client/community concerns and communicate legal issues
Ability to manage time and multiple tasks and deadlines
Spanish language skills preferred, but not required