YAF Celebrates the 60th Anniversary of Gideon vs. Wainwright
“Today, March 18th, we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Gideon v. Wainwright and acknowledge and celebrate the work of everyone who works in public defense in Massachusetts and our efforts towards a more just and equitable legal system for our clients.
Justice Black in the decision wrote “The right of one charged with crime to counsel may not be deemed fundamental and essential to fair trials in some countries, but it is in ours.” All who represent our clients take this charge seriously – whether an attorney, a social worker, administrative professional, an investigator, or a member of the operations team that makes sure we have the tools to do our job for our clients.”
- Anthony Benedetti, Chief Counsel Committee for Public Counsel Services
Please read the following article to learn more about CPCS and the extent of the work that we do.
EdLaw Attorneys attended and Presented the 2023 COPAA (Council of Parents Advocates and Attorneys, Inc.) Conference
From March 2nd through March 5th, EdLaw attorneys attended the 2023 COPAA (Council of Parents Advocates and Attorneys, Inc.) Conference at which they networked with other education law attorneys from across the country, attended many educational sessions on current topics, and were the presenters at a number of sessions.
The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc. (COPAA) is an independent, nonprofit, §501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization of attorneys, advocates, parents and related professionals. There are 7 million children with disabilities in America1. COPAA's 3100 members work to protect the legal and civil rights of and secure excellence in education on behalf of tens of thousands of students with disabilities and their families each year at the national, state and local levels.
EdLaw attorneys are frequent presenters at COPAA's annual conferences. This year their presentations included:
Tim Sindelar and James Baron (a private attorney on CAFL's bar advocate panel and a SEAM mentor) led a pre-conference session on March 2nd entitled: "The Ins and Outs of Ethics - Staying IN Business While Staying OUT of Trouble."
On March 4th, Michele Scavongelli and Tim Sindelar led a breakout session entitled "Representing Students with a Disability on Title IX Issues under the New Regulations."
On March 5th, Marlies Spanjaard and Elizabeth McIntyre led a breakout session entitled "Removing Barriers to a Vocational Education: Supporting Students with Disabilities Who Wish to Attend Vocational High Schools."
And finally, also on March 5th, Michele Scavongelli & Tim Sindelar gave a presentation entitled "When You're Happy and You Know It: The Ins and Outs of Stay Put."
By staying involved with colleagues across the country and an organization that is actively involved in promoting national legislation to support the rights of disabled students and submitting amicus briefs in key special education court cases, EdLaw is continuing our mission to end the school-to-prison pipeline through our work in Massachusetts and our work at a national level.
EdLaw Project Launches Statewide Mentorship Program
New grant-funded initiative will help shut down the school-to-prison pipeline
The EdLaw Project, an initiative between the Youth Advocacy Foundation and the Committee for Public Counsel Services, is pleased to announce the launch of the Special Education Advocacy Mentorship (SEAM) program, a statewide initiative designed to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline in Massachusetts by ensuring our state’s most vulnerable children receive a quality education through zealous legal advocacy. CPCS was awarded a three-year grant in 2022 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to launch and manage the SEAM.
Currently, a small team of EdLaw Project attorneys are charged with supporting the 1,000-person statewide juvenile bar, including training and advising attorneys on how to prevent school exclusions, securing needed special education services for their child/adolescent clients, and ensuring school stability for homeless kids and children in foster care. The SEAM program will help the Youth Advocacy Foundation (YAF) deepen and sustain the reach of its mission so that all 20,000-25,000 children in the Massachusetts child welfare and juvenile justice systems have access to effective education advocacy.
“This is a game-changer for our ability to deliver education advocacy expertise and support, and we are incredibly grateful to the foundations and OJJDP for partnering with us to understand our mission and how to best ensure its success,” said Marlies Spanjaard, EdLaw’s Director of Education Advocacy and President & CEO of the YAF Board of Directors. “The SEAM program will create a small army of education experts located across the state, practicing in the courtrooms where the juvenile bar is representing clients. These mentors will have access to the EdLaw attorneys who are organized regionally to provide advice and expertise across the entire state.”
In the first phase of the launch of SEAM, EdLaw has selected an experienced panel of 27 special education advocacy mentors from 11 Counties and 17 juvenile courthouses across the state. These mentors will be responsible for educating and supporting local delinquency and child welfare attorneys to include education advocacy in conjunction with their court representation. The launch of this program follows perfectly on the heels of the strategic planning grant provided by the Cabot Family Charitable Trust in the first half of 2019 and a generous grant from the Chirag Foundation in early 2020 that allowed us to develop the program parameters, materials, and structure.
The SEAM panel will be overseen by SEAM & Pro Bono Panel Director, Michele Scavongelli, an attorney for the past 10 years with the EdLaw Project. If you are interested in being connected to a mentor or serving as a mentor, please contact Michele at mscavongelli@publiccounsel.net. Please note, the EdLaw helpline is also available for questions and consultation at 617 910 5829 and edlawproject@publiccounsel.net.
About EdLaw
The EdLaw Project is an initiative between the Youth Advocacy Foundation and the Committee for Public Counsel Services Children & Family and Youth Advocacy Divisions of the Committee for Public Counsel Services focused on combating the school-to-prison pipeline for indigent, court-involved youth through trainings for juvenile justice and child welfare attorneys; technical assistance for youth, parents, community organizations; and direct education advocacy.
About YAF
The Youth Advocacy Foundation was established in 2001 with the mission of protecting and advancing the legal and human rights of children to promote their healthy development through active partnerships with local communities. The Foundation vigorously defends the rights and promotes the well-being of court-involved children and helps them grow into healthy and productive members of our society by ensuring that every child has access to zealous legal representation, essential and vibrant community-based services, and a quality education.
YAF News
Yesterday, December 6, 2022, YAF President and CEO, Marlies Spanjaard, testified at the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission hearing to ask the Commission to require the Massachusetts Police Training Commission to collaborate with experts in education and juvenile law in the development of their School Resource Officer training program. This collaboration is legislatively mandated, but has not to our knowledge occured. Marlies cited concerns about racial and disability disparities in school arrest rates and implored the commission to ensure that if school resource officers are going to exist, that they need to be trained to understand implicit bias, child development, trauma and disability related conduct.
12/13/22 Update: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly published an article describing the hearing that YAF CEO and President, Marlies Spanjaard spoke at last week. Marlies was one of several attorneys with expertise in juvenile justice that weighed in on the draft regulations the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission had called the public hearing to discuss. The article gives a nice summary of what each agency in opposition to the regulations stated. Please click the button below to download and read the full article.
Native American Heritage Month 2022
YAF along with the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS) recognizes and celebrates November as Native American Heritage Month. Please click the button below to read a note from CPCS focused on the tradition of the healing circle and its application to efforts for restorative justice. The strongest applications are criminal and youth justice matters, but there are also opportunities within the family and youth law context that the CPCS effort hopes to reach. Thanks for taking the time to read this note in honor of a wonderful community and thank you to our colleagues at CPCS for sharing a powerful resource for justice with non-Native Americans.
YAF Celebrates Pro Bono Week, October 23 - 29, 2022
With this week coming to a close, we want to again recognize and thank all of the firms and people donating their time and expertise to help our small staff of EdLaw attorneys represent even more of Massachusetts' most vulnerable youth and helps us with our mission to shut down the school-to-prison pipeline.
All week long, we've been highlighting the firms and people below, by sharing these stories of some of the incredible work they're doing or have done this year, to ensure Massachusetts' children and emerging adults are able to receive access to an equitable education.
Please read through these stories below and join us, one more time, in thanking all of these incredible people for their time and expertise volunteered!
Exciting News from YAF
A Message From Our Director -
It is my pleasure to announce some restructuring of the Youth Advocacy Foundation (YAF). As many of you know, YAF's longtime President & CEO, Josh Dohan, retired this past fall. We took this opportunity to think about the best structure for the organization going forward. Starting immediately, I as Deputy Chief Counsel of the Youth Advocacy Division will serve as the Chairperson of YAF’s Board of Directors. Marlies Spanjaard, Director of Education Advocacy for the Youth Advocacy Division, has been elevated to the YAF Board of Directors and now serves as its President & CEO. Michele Scavongelli, who has served as YAF’s Deputy Director has stepped into the role of Executive Director.
These new roles better reflect the responsibilities that Marlies and Michele have been shouldering for some time now. These changes were only possible because Marlies and Michele have done extraordinary work building the Foundation into a remarkably vibrant institution that has never been healthier financially, with greater public awareness, and which is enabling YAF’s primary initiative, the EdLaw Project to accomplish miracles in education advocacy.
On behalf of the entire YAF Board, as well as Anthony Benedetti, Chief Counsel for the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), we could not be prouder of what Marlies, Michele and the entire EdLaw team have already accomplished, and we are confident that the best is yet to come in our mission to shut down the school-to-prison pipeline forever.
Great change takes time. We are in it for the long haul and that is only possible because of the support of CPCS, hundreds of dedicated lawyers and social workers, thousands of individual donors, and a plethora of thoughtful foundations, corporations, law firms and community-based organizations. I am confident that the leadership provided by Marlies and Michele is exactly what we need to see this through. Please join me in congratulating them on their new roles.
- Duci Goncalves, Esq., YAF Chairman of the Board
Students of color, with disabilities, English language learners and students in foster care are far more likely than their peers to be disciplined, especially for minor incidents.
On Tuesday, YAF Executive Director, Marlies Spanjaard, testified in support of Massachusetts House Bill H.4138 to end the unnecessary exclusion of children from school. She joined others voicing concerns about the disparate impact of school discipline on Black and Latin-X students, students with disabilities, English language learners as well as students in foster care. These students are far more likely than their peers to be disciplined, especially for minor incidents. The laws MGL Ch. 71, Sec. 37H, MGL Ch. 71, Sec. 37H 3/4, and MGL Ch. 71, Sec 37H ½ require legislative fixes in order to function in a way that supports students AND promotes safety. To read her full testimony, click here.
We need to ban suspension for our youngest students!
Yesterday, EdLaw attorney, Elizabeth McIntyre, testified in support of Massachusetts House of Representatives bill H.3876 The Young Student Exclusion Ban Act. This bill aims to improve educational outcomes by replacing the use of exclusionary discipline in response to minor offenses by students in Pre-K through 3rd grade with effective, alternative approaches like restorative practices, mediation, and other forms of conflict resolution. To read her full testimony please click here.
YAF Executive Director speaks at Boston City Council Hearing on Reopening BPS
On Friday, July 31st, YAF’s Executive Director, Marlies Spanjaard, testified at the Boston City Council meeting on restorative justice practices and the role of police in our schools. Marlies highlighted the racial disparities that exist in Massachusetts around educational attainment and school discipline, as well as the overrepresentation of students with disabilities in the juvenile justice system.
Marlies noted that in Massachusetts, Black boys with disabilities have a suspension rate 17X their white female peers and that in the 2015 – 2016 school year, 1.7 million students nationwide attended schools that had police but no school counselors.
You can watch Marlies' testimony here: https://youtu.be/WyUtcMDyJ_s?t=13357
