Daily updates (mass.gov) from Massachusetts state courts in response to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
Updates are posted after 4:30 p.m.
Category Archives: Youth Advocacy
Tools for Remote Communication
With the unprecedented crisis of COVID-19, more and more we are looking for ways to communicate remotely with clients, colleagues, family and friends. Below is a list of free video conferencing options. We are also sharing information for you and your clients about expanded internet service and no or low-cost smartphones for low-income persons.
CPCS CLE Requirement – Emergency Policy Change – Fiscal Year 2020 Only
Dear Private Attorneys,
We hope you and your families are well during this difficult time. Due to exceptional circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 virus, CPCS is waiving the Continuing Legal Education hours requirement for all units for Fiscal Year 2020 (July 1, 2019-June 30, 2020.)
Although we have waived the CLE requirements, we encourage you to attend webinars that are relevant to your practice area to support your professional development. The CPCS training unit will post offerings for webinars soon. Please see the CPCS Training Department Website.
You may still be paid for eight (8) hours of training if you meet the attendance and payment requirements.
Additionally, Panel Directors may offer credit for webinars that are not sponsored by CPCS. Please contact the Panel Director for your practice area to determine whether you may get credit and bill for attendance at a webinar not sponsored by CPCS.
We hope that we will be returning to offering in-person training in the later part of the Spring (all in person CPCS training has been cancelled through April 30, 2020), and look forward to seeing you then.
The CPCS Training Department and Panel Directors
CPCS Training Department Response to Public Health Concerns
Given new Executive Branch directives regarding meetings and events in light of COVID-19, the CPCS Training Department is cancelling all in-person training until April 30, 2020. As you know, the situation is fluid and we are continually assessing as we get more information from public health authorities.
At this point, we will still deliver some training via webinar. Please check the training calendar. Continue reading
VIDEO: YAF Wins 2020 Reginald Heber Smith Award
The Youth Advocacy Foundation (YAF), the nonprofit arm of the Massachusetts juvenile public defender agency, is the 2020 winner of the Reginald Heber Smith Award for Excellence in Legal Services.
The award, presented by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, goes to an organization that has exhibited innovation and excellence in legal advocacy. YAF received the award at the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly 2020 Leaders in the Law event on March 5.
Below is the video that was shown at the event:
“The work that we do at the EdLaw Project is transforming for the children and it is the same thing that many of you are trying to do for your own children, which is to make sure they have the best opportunity for educational success. As you saw in the video, this work can have life-changing impact,” said Marlies Spanjaard, executive director of the Youth Advocacy Foundation, during her speech at the event. “Whether that means getting a child help in learning to read or clearing up a disciplinary incident or an unfair disciplinary practice, it is incredibly meaningful and gratifying to be a part of that change. It helps me—and all of us at the EdLaw Project—to feel good about the future and about the foundation we are laying for the next generation. Receiving this award tonight affirms that our work is important to all of you, too, and for that we are deeply grateful.”
Through zealous legal representation and community-based services, YAF fights to decrease the risk of chronic court involvement and to increase the chances that young people will grow into healthy, thriving adults.
YAF’s innovative EdLaw Project has been in existence since 2001 and has provided direct representation to nearly 2,000 children. Through the EdLaw Project, court-appointed attorneys across the state receive specialized training and support to help them incorporate education advocacy into their practice.
“I am grateful to be among so many leaders in the law. As I look around the room and see so many of my colleagues, it is truly gratifying to have an event that brings together such a cross-section of so many practice areas,” Spanjaard said. “Though we may have diverse practice areas and interests we also have a lot in common. This night showcases that we all share a commitment to excellence in our practice. We care about our work. A big part of what makes me care about my work is the children we serve, and I imagine that this is something you can all relate to.”
YAF Wins 2020 Excellence in Legal Services Award
The Youth Advocacy Foundation (YAF), the nonprofit arm of the Massachusetts juvenile public defender agency, has been named the 2020 winner of the Reginald Heber Smith Award for Excellence in Legal Services.
The award, presented by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, goes to an organization that has exhibited innovation and excellence in legal advocacy. YAF will receive the award at the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly 2020 Leaders in the Law event on March 5.
“We are incredibly honored to be recognized by Mass Lawyers Weekly for the work that we do to ensure that Massachusetts’ most vulnerable kids have access to representation when they are being excluded from school and/or not receiving the special education services they need in order to succeed,” said Marlies Spanjaard, executive director of the Youth Advocacy Foundation. “We hope that this award will provide us the opportunity to raise awareness to the educational inequities that exist in our schools and the huge societal benefit of shutting down the school to prison pipeline.”
Through zealous legal representation and community-based services, YAF fights to decrease the risk of chronic court involvement and to increase the chances that young people will grow into healthy, thriving adults.
YAF’s innovative EdLaw Project has been in existence since 2001 and has provided direct representation to nearly 2,000 children. Through the EdLaw Project, court-appointed attorneys across the state receive specialized training and support to help them incorporate education advocacy into their practice.
EdLaw attorneys are organized by region and support the 1,000-person statewide juvenile bar, which represents kids involved in child welfare cases and the juvenile justice system. As a result of the EdLaw Project and its attorneys, children across the state have received advocacy that has allowed them to remain in school and receive the services they need.
CPCS Staffers ‘Adopt’ 35 Kids for Holidays
Staff at the Committee for Public Counsel Services “adopted” 35 kids in partnership with Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Each child will get a gift for the holiday season.
Staff from the Springfield office of the Committee for Public Counsel Services “adopted” 35 kids for the holidays in partnership with the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC).
Each CPCS staffer received a holiday wish list from a child and then shopped for and wrapped the gifts. The gifts will be picked up by MSPCC and distributed by clinicians assigned to the children.
“The children involved in MSPCC’s programs deal with some of the most serious problems you can imagine. As public defenders, we are committed to supporting the most marginalized members of our community. We are grateful for this opportunity to let these kids know that our hearts are with them,” said Trevor Maloney, a staff attorney with the CPCS Springfield office, who helped organize the gift drive. “I’m proud to work with so many generous attorneys, investigators, social service advocates, and administrative support staff. We hope the clothes, toys, books, and other gifts bring some holiday cheer to these kids and their families.”
CPCS attorneys, investigators, social service advocates, and administrative assistants with the Youth Advocacy Division, the Children and Family Law Division and the Public Defender Division all participated.
The MSPCC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the rights and well-being of children and families.
Appeals Court: Hearsay Not Enough to Revoke Probation
A juvenile should not have had their probation revoked based entirely “on unreliable hearsay testimony from a Department of Children and Families case worker,” the Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled.
During an Oct. 2, 2017 probation revocation hearing, a DCF case worker testified that the juvenile was not cooperating with the department and “ha[d] broken all the rules,” according to the decision.
However, the case worker was not assigned to the juvenile’s case when the alleged violations occurred. The case worker also admitted that his testimony was entirely based on conversations with a third party and notes from the juvenile’s DCF case file.
“This case is a simple case of classic, multiple-level, hearsay,” said Benjamin L. Falkner, a Committee for Public Counsel Services bar advocate, during oral arguments in March. “It does not come close to meeting the requirements of being substantially reliable.”
The Appeals Court agreed, and on Tuesday reversed a lower court judge’s order revoking probation and imposing a sentence on the juvenile.
“We … conclude that the testimony from the case worker lacked the ‘indicia of reliability’ required to support finding that the juvenile violated his probation,” Appeals Court Justice Edward McDonough wrote. “Significantly, the case worker’s testimony lacked the requisite factual detail.”
CPCS Leaders, International Guest Tour Child Welfare Center
From L-R: Mona Igram, the Attorney in Charge of the Committee for Public Counsel Services’ Youth Advocacy Division office in Lowell, Basel Abu Zayda, of the Ministry of Social Development in the West Bank, and Josh Dohan, Director of the Youth Advocacy Division, toured the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps facility in Lancaster. Lauren Sousa, Director of Clinical Services at RFK and Phil Pichie, Residential Director, were on hand for the tour.
Committee for Public Counsel Services Youth Advocacy Division leaders toured a Bay State child welfare and juvenile justice center with an international guest and showcased some model residential and educational programming for children and youth.
Mona Igram, the attorney in charge of the Committee for Public Counsel Services’ Youth Advocacy Division office in Lowell, and Josh Dohan, director of the Youth Advocacy Division, toured the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps facility in Lancaster with Basel Abu Zayda, of the Ministry of Social Development in the West Bank.
“As public defenders for children and youth, we were quite impressed with the residential and educational programs being run by the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps,” Dohan said. “It was the perfect program to show a guest from another country looking for best practices to take home.”
Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps is a nonprofit child welfare organization providing community-based services, education, foster care and adoption, residential treatment, and juvenile justice programming to individuals and families in crisis.
Alan Klein, president of the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps, guided the tour.
SJC: School Assembly Amendment Applies Retroactively
Legislation geared toward keeping kids out of the school-to-prison pipeline by prohibiting criminal proceedings against juvenile students for “disturbing a school assembly” based on in-school conduct must be applied retroactively to cases pending when the law was enacted, according to a recent high court decision.
The Supreme Judicial Court, siding with the position of the Committee for Public Counsel Services and others, found that it would be “repugnant to the purpose of the Legislature’s amendment of the school assembly statute” to have the law apply prospectively.
The student who was being prosecuted under the old version of the law was represented in his appeal to the SJC by Eva Jellison, a private attorney assigned to the case by CPCS.
“The disturbing a school assembly offense was a major factor in the school-to-prison pipeline. For example, in 2016, 250 children were charged solely with disturbing a school assembly,” Jellison said. “The children that this offense affected the most were black, brown, LGBTQ, poor, and disabled.”
The SJC vacated a lower court’s adjudication of delinquency against the juvenile and remanded the case for dismissal.
“The legislative intent was to reduce the number of kids involved in the juvenile justice system,” said Afton M. Templin, director of juvenile appeals for CPCS’s Youth Advocacy Division. “We are pleased with the decision, and we are hopeful that this reduces the number of kids in the school-to-prison pipeline.”
CPCS’s Youth Advocacy Division filed an amicus brief, which was written by private attorney Melissa Allen Celli. The brief urged the high court to apply the law retroactively. Citizens for Juvenile Justice, the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee, Massachusetts Appleseed, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the Anti-Defamation League all signed onto the brief.
This marks the second time the SJC sided with CPCS regarding the retroactivity of the Criminal Justice Reform Act. Earlier this year, the high court found that the Legislature’s revised definition of “delinquent child” in the Act must apply retroactively.
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Press Contact:
Bob McGovern
rmcgovern@publiccounsel.net
617-910-5758