What does CLC do?

Since 1995 Children’s Law Center (CLC) has provided free legal services to Minnesota youth in foster care.  With the help of 250 volunteer attorneys, CLC provides these professional legal services to approximately 400 Minnesota foster children every year.  CLC is Minnesota’s only privately funded organization that exclusively represents foster youth. Children have the right to have quality representation, and to have a voice when judges and court workers are making decisions about their lives. In addition to its direct representation work, CLC engages in systemic reform benefiting all of Minnesota’s foster children, and develops educational programming and materials for people involved in the child protection system and for homeless/at risk youth.

FOSTER CHILDREN NEED LAWYERS

• In most cases, foster children have been abused or neglected.  They need to be protected from being further traumatized by the system.
• Navigating child welfare court systems is complicated and confusing.  Minnesota state law allows children ages 10 and older to request a court-appointed attorney. However, many children attend court alone or not at all.
• Foster children are often not aware of the services and support to which they are entitled, such as sibling contact and independent living skills training.
• Judges do not typically meet with children before court dates, and only know what is written in their file.
• When foster children misbehave, they are often sent to overly restrictive placements and do not receive the same support that non-foster care peers do for the same behavior.
• It is important for children who are transitioning out of foster care to have a plan in place that will help them manage the next stages of their lives. Although required by law, these plans are often not implemented early enough and sometimes not at all.

If you are a child in foster care in Minnesota, and you want legal help, please call CLC at 651-644-4438 to see if we can help you.