Civitas ChildLaw Center
Special Programs
Community services are a significant component of the Civitas ChildLaw Center's work. To that end, the Civitas ChildLaw Center faculty (as well as students) participate in a wide range of special projects and activities in the child advocacy community that influence policy and practice. Examples of recent partnerships include:
Civitas ChildLaw Clinic:
The Civitas ChildLaw Clinic is a functioning law office in which students work under the close supervision of clinical faculty. Through the clinic, students represent child clients in a range of legal proceedings including abuse and neglect, delinquency, child custody, domestic violence and special education.
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ChildLaw and Education Institute:
The newest addition to the Civitas ChildLaw Center's programming is the Law and Education Institute, under the direction of Associate Dean Michael Kaufman, the co-author of the nation's leading textbook on education law. The goal of the Institute is to facilitate collaborative interdisciplinary research, publications, training, conferences and outreach programs dedicated to the development of excellence and equity in the nation's schools.
- Law and Education Institute Conference - October 13, 2006 Topic: Law and Policy of Universal Preschool
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International Children's Rights Initiative:
Loyola's Civitas ChildLaw Center is committed to playing a leadership role in the international effort to protect children and to promote laws, policies and practices that allow all children to reach their full potential. In furtherance of this goal, Loyola offers students opportunities to study international children's rights in the classroom, to engage in field research in countries such as Chile, Tanzania, India and Thailand, to work on international child abduction cases in the ChildLaw Clinic, and to participate in international internships around the globe
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ChildLaw Policy Institute:
The Civitas ChildLaw Center also is involved in public policy and legislation, under the direction of Anita Weinberg, director of ChildLaw Policy and Legislative Programs. The goal of the ChildLaw Policy Institute is to promote child-centered laws, policies and practices, and to improve the functioning of the legal, social welfare, juvenile justice, health care and other systems that impact on children and families. In addition to training students in the area of policy and legislative development, analysis and implementation, the Institute also serves as a resource for lawyers, judges, legislators, public officials, child welfare specialists, health professionals, educators, social scientists, and others. Areas in which faculty and students have worked to accomplish these goals include chairing a task force to eliminate lead poisoning in children, providing courtroom training for child welfare case-workers and practicing attorneys, and promoting the increased use of interdisciplinary collaboration and child development principles in fashioning policies relating to children and families.
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Children's Summer Institute:
10th Annual Children's Summer Institute: Carol Harding Lecture Series - May 23, 2008 Topic: Advocating for Teen Parents: What Can We Learn from Adolescent Brain Development ResearcH
9TH ANNUAL CHILDREN'S SUMMER INSTITUTE CAROL HARDING LECTURE SERIES - May 2007 Topic: The State of the Child
- Lead Poisoning Prevention: The Civitas ChildLaw Center staffs and chairs the Illinois Lead Safe Housing Task Force. The Task Force is the only advocacy group in the state focused entirely on reducing childhood lead poisoning and increasing lead-safe housing. The Civitas ChildLaw Center, with the City of Chicago Department of Public Health, is leading an initiative to bring together policy makers, advocates, health professionals, City, State, and Federal officials, and academic and community leaders to develop a blueprint to end childhood lead poisoning in Chicago by 2010. This work is being done in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Centers for Disease Control. The Civitas ChildLaw Center also is working with three communities within Chicago-Austin, North Lawndale, and Rogers Park-to address the problem of lead poisoning. For detailed information about lead poisoning and its prevention, see www.leadsafeillinois.org, the ChildLaw Center's educational site regarding lead poisoning. The site includes information for parents, homes and property owners, tenants, healthcare providers, city and state officials.
For a copy of the City of Chicago's strategic plan to eliminate childhood lead poisoning, published June 2004, see:
Lead Safe Chicago: A Plan to Eliminate Childhood Lead Poisoning by 2010
For a copy of the Civitas ChildLaw Center's quarterly newsletter on childhood lead poisoning and prevention, see:
Lead Safe Illinois, Winter 2007/2008 newsletter
Lead Safe Illinois, Spring/Summer 2006 newsletter
Lead Safe Illinois, Fall/Winter 2005 newsletter
Lead Safe Illinois, Winter/Spring 2005 newsletterLead Safe Illinois Newsletters Archive
For a copy of a resource manual that summarizes and presents Chicago, Illinois, and federal laws regarding lead poisoning, see Bench Book on Lead Paint Poisoning.
The Bench Book on Lead Paint Poisoning
For more information generally about lead poisoning concerns, see Children, Lead Poisoning and the Legal System.
For more information about the Civitas ChildLaw Center's community initiative, see Children in a Toxic World: A Working Paper on Community Efforts to End Childhood Lead Poisoning.
For information on the committee projects of the Fostering Compliance Workgroup of Lead Safe Chicago, see Fostering Compliance Workgroup of Lead Safe Chicago.
- BAR Attorney Training Are you interested in representing parents and/or children in child protection proceedings in Juvenile court? For questions regarding trainings contact the Loyola Civitas ChildLaw Center at 312-915-6481.
- Juvenile Justice Reform: Civitas ChildLaw Center faculty and students staffed a commission of diverse members, convened by the Cook County State's Attorney's office, in an effort to develop policy and legislative recommendations to help law enforcement officials better respond to young offenders accused of committing homicide and other serious crimes. The State's Attorney's office requested Civitas ChildLaw Center assistance in this project. The Commission was created in response to the murder of an 11 year-old child last year, and the arrest and subsequent dismissal of charges against a seven- and an eight-year-old boy.
- DCFS Courtroom Training: The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services asked Loyola to develop and implement a training program for caseworkers aimed at improving their ability to interact with the legal system as witnesses providing information to child protection judges. Under this program, over one thousand public and private caseworkers have been trained, with additional trainings being planned.
- Child Welfare Reform Activities: The faculty is actively engaged in a range of activities designed to "reinvent" the child welfare system. These activities include chairing the American Bar Association's Steering Committee on the Unmet Legal Needs of Children, the Citizens Committee on the Juvenile Court; co-chairing the Public Guardian Committee; chairing a federally-funded State Court Improvement Project; chairing the Juvenile Justice Section Council of the Illinois State Bar Association; membership on the American Judicature Society's Children's Committee; and membership on the Chicago Child Advocacy Center Board of Directors, as well as participation on innumerable committees established by the Juvenile Court and the Department of Children and Family Services.
