The Children's Law Podcast

In this episode, Angela talks with Dr. Frank W. Putnam, author of Old Before Their Time: A Scientific Life Investigating How Maltreatment Harms Children and the Adults They Become. Dr. Putnam is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and an authority on the lifetime effects of childhood maltreatment. He is co-founder, with the late Dr. Penelope Trickett, of the Female Growth and Development Study (FGDS), an ongoing 35+ year, multigenerational study of the enduring biopsychosocial effects of childhood sexual abuse on female development. This episode highlights key points from the book and actions children's lawyers can take to help their clients, particularly those who have been sexually abused.For more on Dr. Putnam and the book, visit his website.To learn more about the iCare training, visit https://www.icarecollaborative.org/For the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, visit https://www.nctsn.org/

In this episode, Angela talks with Tim Keller of the Center for the Rights of Abused Children about asserting constitutional rights on behalf of your clients. You won't want to miss this discussion!For more information about the Center for Abused Children: Center for the Rights of Abused ChildrenWe discussed this free resource to jumpstart your practice:A Practice Manual for Lawyers Representing Abused and Neglected Children; Asserting, Arguing, and Appealing the Constitutional Rights of Children in Foster Care

In this episode, Angela, Jim and John discuss the way immigration policies and enforcement are harming children. We reference the following quote by Nelson Mandela as we discuss these issues: "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."As mentioned in the episode, we want to offer a way for you to reach out to members of Congress. Here are two options to locate your Representatives and Senators:Official: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-memberMore User Friendly: https://democracy.io/#!/Below is a template you can use to write to members of Congress. It is designed for children’s attorneys, but if you have found this podcast and are in a different field, feel free to adapt it to suit your background.Dear Representative/Senator (insert name) I am a constituent of yours and a children’s attorney who practices in your district. I am writing concerning the aggressive enforcement of immigration policies and its impact on children. While reasonable people can disagree on immigration policy, I am writing with a very simple request. Whatever we do, can we please take care not to harm or traumatize children? Our government should not harm a single child - whether here through legal means or not. As a children’s attorney, I am well versed in the adverse impact of trauma on young children. Subjecting thousands of children to an environment where they live in fear of losing one or both parents to detention or sudden deportation, or of being detained themselves in substandard conditions, will have dire consequences for us as a society. Childhood trauma creates lifelong challenges, and we will pay this bill eventually. And to the extent children themselves are detained, I have serious concerns about detention conditions and their negative impact on child health and well-being.The administration’s aggressive enforcement of immigration policy seems designed to strike fear in the hearts of immigrants whether undocumented or going through the legal process. The problem is it seems as if the administration has forgotten that the children are watching. And it’s not just immigrant children being harmed. American children are also watching this play out in real time, and it is harming them as well.  When children’s attorneys are faced with a domestic violence case, one of the first things we point out to the parents is that the violence occurred while their children were in the room watching. I am asking you to remember that the children are in the room. We need to be the adults in the room and put our children first.  Thank you for listening and taking action to protect our children.

In this episode, John, Jim and Angela discuss the transformative power of filing claims on behalf of your clients. We discuss your duty as a children's lawyer and the specific benefits to your clients.If you have questions or suggested podcast topics, you can  reach us by email ([email protected]).If you like the podcast, please share with your colleagues, subscribe and rate the show!

In this episode, John and Angela take on the difficult topic of creating and holding boundaries with child clients. Filled with nuance and contradictions, the topic of boundaries is challenging for many children's lawyers. We hope you enjoy the discussion! Feel free to reach out with comments or episode ideas to Angela, at [email protected].

Preventive and pre-petition advocacy is not in all jurisdictions, but when the Title IV-E rule clarified that this representation was eligible for reimbursement, expansion increased. Angela asks Emilie Cook to explain how it works. Emilie is a Senior Attorney at the Barton Child Law and Policy Center at Emory University School of Law and leads the Preventive Legal Advocacy and Pre-petition Program National Cohort to focus on early intervention and holistic support for at-risk families. The Barton Center has a PLA/PP Cohort that anyone can join to learn more, and here is a link to a fact sheet developed with the National Association of Counsel for Children. We hope you learned something new and valuable, and if you did, please rate and share the podcast!

Despite progress, children involved in both dependency and delinquency proceedings still have higher risks for poor outcomes. Crossover, dually-involved, or dual-adjudicated youth have greater mental health challenges, poorer placement stability, and worse permanency outcomes. John, Angela and Deborah talk about what an already-busy child's attorney might do and, as importantly, why.

A LOT of the kids we're representing are being prescribed psychotropic medications - especially the older youth. John, Angela, and Deborah talk about ways children's attorneys can get more information and confidence in this area to effectively advocate for clients even if we don't have medical expertise: The NIH says children in foster care are 6.8% more likely to be prescribed psychotropic medication than their non-foster care peers. As children's attorneys and not medical professionals, it is not our role to diagnose, but it is our role to make sure decision-makers have complete information, ask questions, and make sure everyone has done their due diligence before our clients are added to this very high number. Some children need medicine but what's the full picture? Are the problematic behaviors related to a trauma response? Do they persist across all aspects of the child's life (home, school, etc.)? Are there other therapies or supports that should be used instead of or in addition to the medication? Is everyone following the law? Because of the severity of side effects of some psychotropic medications and because some are not approved for use in children specifically, most states have detailed statutes, administrative rules, and/or operating procedures. Sometimes just holding the system accountable to the child by ensuring the law is followed is enough to protect your client.

In this episode, Angela interviews Professor Vivek Sankaran, Director of the Child Advocacy Law and Child Welfare Appellate Clinics at the University of Michigan's School of Law. Professor Sankaran encourages stakeholders to question whether TPR is in the best interests of as many children as we think it is. He and Angela talk about his article, The ties that bind us: An empirical, clinical, and constitutional argument against terminating parental rights, which found over 60,000 TPRs were granted annually between 2016-2019, despite a declining foster care population. While recognizing TPR is necessary in some cases, he poses some thoughtful questions for others.

A new book “Families Belong Together,” was released by Public Knowledge to help elevate and honor the voices of individuals with lived experience and make the case for reimagining our child welfare system. Stacey Moss, Public Knowledge President and CEO, and Will Hornsby, Senior Vice President of Delivery, talk with Angela about the group’s idea to “replace” the current system with a community-oriented, strengths-focused approach that matches the social, economic, racial, ethnic, and religious realities of each community. The book features stories of families who navigated the system, and serves as a call to action. Stacey, Will, and Angela talk about whether to keep tinkering with improvements on the current system or construct something new and different. As always, there are tips on how children’s attorneys can make an impact. Get the full picture. Getting comprehensive information will help get the “right diagnosis” and better tailored solutions. Talk to your client. Every family has strengths that can serve as natural supports and mitigate risks. Get creative. Advocate for what works for the family, instead of defaulting to what is best for the people that do this work every day. Focus on what brought the child into the system to hone in on what is necessary to get the family out. Stacey says it feels like we're in a fight between safety and permanency - at the expense of focusing on well-being of children and families. Public Knowledge wants to change that. Their powerful book is filled with concrete ideas and stories that can be used for training and to facilitate conversations about how the system can be better. The content of the book is available on the website for free and is being sold on Amazon. Here is the link to the book: https://go.pubknow.com/families-belong-together-bookPublic Knowledge also has a podcast and we invite you to listen in. Click the link to access the Igniting Impact Podcast: https://pubknow.com/media-center/podcast/