National Center for Youth Law
For almost 50 years, the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) has fought to advance justice by defending the rights of children and improving the systems impacting their lives. NYCL focuses on complex challenges that disproportionately affect children and communities of color and on solutions that require multiple public systems to change their policies, practices, and culture by filing litigation in the areas of immigration, juvenile justice, education, health, child welfare, and child trafficking.
THE CASE
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Representing children with disabilities, their parents/guardians, Disability Rights Florida, and the Florida Conference of the NAACP, D.P. v. School Board of Palm Beach County seeks to stop the School District of Palm Beach County (SDPBC) from illegally using police force to subject students, especially students with disabilities, to involuntary psychiatric examinations. The case holds significant implications for other jurisdictions where law enforcement is being inappropriately and illegally used when students experience mental health crises.
SDPBC police illegally use the Florida Mental Health Act (“the Baker Act”) to subject hundreds of students annually to involuntary psychiatric examinations, without parental input, consent and sometimes, despite objections. Police remove students, as young as five years old, from their classrooms, handcuff them, sometimes use hobble restraints, and transport them to psychiatric facilities, where they wait up to 72 hours for an examination. SDPBC police do not have mental health training or credentials. SDPBC police knowingly use the Baker Act on children whose behavior is disability-related, even when the behaviors do not meet the law’s criteria. They also seize students with disabilities when the district is aware of services that could prevent any need for such seizures. Additionally, they fail to consult mental health resources, including mobile crisis teams and the children's own therapists. As a result of this case, SDPBC will stop this harmful and disruptive practice against students with disabilities, and instead, provide more effective mental health supports.
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D.S. v. Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF)
The case was filed on behalf of three youth plaintiffs who represent a class of children subjected to placement instability, as well as an organizational plaintiff, Disability Rights Washington, to protect thousands of children with disabilities in foster care. Across Washington State, children with disabilities in foster care are separated from their families because DCYF fails to provide them the supports to remain or reunify with their families. Many children are subjected to extreme placement instability, cycling between temporary shelters, group homes, out-of-state facilities, one-night foster care stays, and hotels.The lawsuit’s goals include requiring DCYF to -
1. Provide appropriate family preservation- and reunification-focused supports;
2. End the placement of children in hotels, offices, and other short-term stays;
3. Develop an adequate array of placements so children with disabilities receive foster care services in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs; and
4. Institute a process for providing individualized needs assessments to children with disabilities in foster care. -
LUCAS R. v. AZAR
Lucas R. v. Azar is a federal class action lawsuit filed in 2018 on behalf of unaccompanied migrant children and youth by NCYL and co-counsel: the Immigration Law Clinic at University of California Davis, the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, and the law firm, Cooley LLP. Plaintiffs allege that the Office for Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a program operated by the Administration of Children and Families (ACF), violates the legally protected rights of children in ORR custody. Lucas R. seeks to enforce constitutional protections for unaccompanied children in federal custody. At its core, this case seeks to protect the civil liberties of some of our most vulnerable children and youth. Thousands of class members in ORR custody will be directly impacted by the outcome of this lawsuit. Our expertise at the intersection of children’s rights, immigrant rights, and disability rights will improve the health, safety and well-being of all children and youth in ORR custody.In November 2018, Federal District Judge Dolly Gee denied ORR’s Motion to Dismiss and certified five national classes of children in ORR custody subject to the challenged policies and practices, allowing this case to move forward as a class action. Over the course of 2020, NCYL has been actively engaged in discovery, reviewing thousands of pages of documents produced by the government, conducting depositions, and analyzing evidence needed in order to prevail on our claims. NCYL has also facilitated nine expert reports in anticipation of Motions for Summary Judgment this Fall. This case is currently scheduled for a six-week trial in January 2021.
CASE UPDATES SINCE GRANT YEAR
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In a landmark ruling in the Lucas R. lawsuit in March 2022, a federal judge held that unaccompanied children in federal immigration custody are entitled to greater constitutional protections than they are currently afforded.
Among other things, the order:
1. Requires the government to employ a clear and convincing evidentiary standard in deciding when a minor should be stepped up to a more restrictive placement and gives minors the opportunity to immediately appeal their placement in a restrictive setting, with the assistance of counsel.
2. Extends the right to appeal the denial of a sponsorship application beyond just parents of a child in custody to their siblings, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Moreover, the Court required the government to ensure written notice to denied sponsors to inform them of their right to appeal and be represented by counsel.
3. Requires broader access to counsel for detained children, including notice to counsel of placement in restrictive facilities, access to counsel to appeal step-up decisions and sponsor denials, and access to class members’ case files upon request.The Court’s holding applied to three of the five claims in the Lucas R. lawsuit. Over the coming months NCYL will continue negotiating with the administration in an effort to come to agreement on the remaining two claims regarding (1) children who are administered psychotropic medications and (2) children with disabilities.
If we are unable to reach agreement on these two additional claims, a trial will take place in November 2022.
