Winter 2005

Juvenile Justice: A Team-Child Approach
By Sara Meerse, Esq.

KIDS Legal Aid of Maine at Pine Tree Legal Assistance has a grant to work with Penobscot Indian Nation juveniles facing charges in tribal court or state court. If you are member of any Indian Tribe and have concerns about your child, please call us. You can reach us toll-free at 1-866-624-7787. You can also get information from our website. We will work together with the Native American Unit to provide you services.

Our goal is to make sure a child's needs are being identified and met. Children who are "at risk" are those kids who may not graduate from high school, may risk going to jail or face other barriers that will keep them from being successful in life. Through "Team- Child," attorneys at KIDS can screen for risk factors a child is facing and then address those factors. By doing so, a child will have a better chance of stopping delinquent behaviors and being successful in life.

How can we do this? If there are not enough juvenile defense attorneys, we can represent the juvenile in the court case. If an attorney is working with the juvenile in the court case, we can look at related issues, like school, medical, and housing. By doing this, we will look at the whole child and not just the child's behavior that brought him to court. For example, if a child is facing expulsion at school, we can represent the child at the expulsion hearing. If the family is facing an eviction, we can represent the family in court. If the child needs mental health services but MaineCare won't approve it, we can appeal the denial with the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHS). Of course, we can only take cases where there is a legal right to services and where there is a defense. So, we need to look at the case to see if we can help.

Here are some examples of cases we have done in Cumberland County under the Team- Child approach.

M's mother was referred to KIDS by a Judge after the Judge found out that M was not allowed to go to school. Instead, he was getting just 2 hours of tutoring a day. He would only earn 2 credits for high school graduation instead of 5 like his fellow students, making him have to go to high school for at least one extra year. M is a special education student. A KIDS attorney went to a PET meeting with M and his mother. After that meeting, M returned to school, got tutoring to make up for classes he missed, and was referred to community agencies for case management and counseling services.

K contacted KIDS because she was homeless and out of school. She had a juvenile charge against her and we got a juvenile defense attorney to represent her. A KIDS attorney was appointed as her GAL in the juvenile case. We argued for her to be placed in a therapeutic group home since she was homeless and she needed mental health services too. We also represented her in school meetings to make sure she could go to school, get the right special ed services, and go to summer school to make up for time she missed. She graduated from high school and is going to college.

Another student, JC, was referred to KIDS by his juvenile defense attorney. He was identified as a student with a specific learning disability, but his emotional and behavioral problems were ignored by the school, despite his hospitalizations for suicidal tendencies and depression and his need for counseling and medication to help manage his depression. He was doing poorly in school both behaviorally and academically. A KIDS attorney represented JC through his parents and was able to have him identified as a student with both a learning disability and emotional disability. He was placed in an alternative school, where he is passing and receiving services for his emotional issues.

J's mom called our office when her son was facing expulsion from school. The school wanted to expel him after they found his behavior was not related to his disability. A KIDS attorney appealed the school's decision. The case was settled. The school agreed not to expel him. A second case was opened to address appropriate programming under IDEA. His IEP was modified to include direct reading instruction and to provide him with a vocational program he and his parents requested.