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The Teen Legal Advocacy Clinic in Connecticut Helps Students Cope With Legal Problems
Josh Michtom, the staff lawyer at the clinic, said that in the first three months since the clinic opened, about 20 students had sought legal advice there. The clinic is sponsored by the Center for Children’s Advocacy, which is affiliated with the University of Connecticut’s School of Law.
          
February 17, 2008
Education
For Students’ Problems, Some Legal Advice
By GAIL BRACCIDIFERRO, NY TIMES
BRIDGEPORT

Dayquinn Miller, 17, transferred to Warren Harding High School from another school in the fall, but for three months he did not know whether he would be allowed to graduate in the spring. His former school district refused to release his transcript unless his family paid for school bus damage he was accused of causing.

The Teen Legal Advocacy Clinic that opened at his new school in the fall informed him that it is illegal for a school district to withhold a transcript over such a dispute. After a letter was written on the young man’s behalf, the transcript was released, said Josh Michtom, the staff lawyer at the clinic.

Without the transcript, Dayquinn said Harding had no records of what credits he had earned.

“It was scary,” he said.

Mr. Michtom said that in the first three months since the clinic opened, about 20 students had sought legal advice there. The clinic is sponsored by the Center for Children’s Advocacy, which is affiliated with the University of Connecticut’s School of Law.

The children’s advocacy center opened its first school-based legal clinic at Hartford High School in 1998 as part of an effort to reduce the school’s dropout rate, which then stood at 50 percent.

The intention was to help students in struggling communities cope with legal problems that often stand in the way of their educational success, problems that students from well-heeled neighborhoods either don’t have, or have the resources to handle in a different manner.

“The idea is to remove obstacles that can keep students from coming to school,” said Stacey Violante Cote, a lawyer who has worked at Hartford High School since the program began.

Teenagers here might need help navigating special education services, or they live in abusive homes and want to be legally emancipated, the center’s directors said. Others are homeless and might need a permanent foster home, or they are immigrants without the proper documentation to work. Others are young parents who need food, child care or support payments.

With his transcript dispute settled, Dayquinn is confident about graduating in the spring, and he plans to attend the Georgia Institute of Technology in the fall.

Another 17-year-old student whose first name is Hector was struggling with a problem at home with his mother that was making it difficult for him to concentrate on schoolwork. For confidentiality reasons, Mr. Michtom could not be more specific, but he said he had counseled Hector about his rights, advised him of a course of action and appeared in court with him on an unrelated case to help translate the proceeding for the Spanish-speaking teenager.

“He told me things I didn’t know about my rights,” Hector said, referring to Mr. Michtom. “I don’t know what problems I would have gotten into. I was feeling disoriented.”

Now Hector is earning good grades and is even considering a career as a lawyer.

In about five years, the program has counseled more than 850 students and conducted about 300 training groups, Ms. Violante Cote said. It has also worked to make larger, more systemic changes, like improvements to the special education system, she said.

Mr. Michtom had worked as a public defender in Cambridge, Mass., but he said in his current job he has a broader impact on students’ lives because he can help them stay in school and encourage them to go on to college.

“The reason I’m a lawyer is to make the legal system accessible to poor people,” he said.

Individual Advocacy

CCA established an on-site collaborative Teen Legal Advocacy Clinic at Hartford Public High School in 1998, making it one of six school-based legal services programs in the country at that time. In 2007, CCA expanded the Teen Legal Advocacy project, establishing a second office on-site at Harding High School in Bridgeport.

The premise underlying the project design is that complex issues with a legal component often hinder teenagers from taking advantage of the educational opportunities available to them. Legal interventions can make a positive difference in educational outcomes.

As an off-shoot of the school-based legal services program, the Teen Legal Advocacy Clinic provides legal services to youth in shelters and other community sites. Our legal staff and law students provide legal advice and representation to teenagers in an effort to help them solve the crises in their lives that cause them to drop out of school. The types of cases and questions include:

Abuse and Neglect
What are my rights if my parents are abusive?
Educational Rights of Homeless Students
Can I stay in the school I was in before I moved to the shelter?
Education/Special Education
What are my options if I’m not doing well in school?
Emancipation
Can I live independently from my parents?
Immigration
Can I stay in this country legally if I don’t have a visa?
Legal Rights of Homeless Students
I am living in a shelter. Do I have to change schools?
Legal Rights of Teen Fathers
What will happen if I don’t pay child support?
Legal Rights of Teen Mothers
How do I get a court order to get child support? Does my school have to provide a tutor when I leave to have my baby?
Reproductive Health Care Rights
If I am a minor, do I need the permission of my parent or guardian to go to a clinic?
Running Away from Home and Truancy
Will I get locked up if I run away from home? Can I be locked up for missing a lot of school?
Sexual Assault
My boyfriend/girlfriend is older than me. Is that legal? What are my rights if I was sexually assaulted?
State and Federal Benefits
Is it true that I have to be emancipated before I can get cash assistance? Can you help me get the benefits that I was denied?

Systemic Advocacy

Individual cases expose systemic issues. Through administrative and legislative advocacy, Clinic staff promote changes to policies and practices that will benefit the largest number of teens, including:

legal rights of teens in shelters, group homes, and residential facilities
education services to pregnant students throughout the school system
services to abused and neglected teens through various state agencies including DCF, DMHAS, and DMR

Training
Public education
Legal Resources
Success Stories
KidsCounsel Listserv
Useful National Web Links

 
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