National Center for Youth Law

NCYL in the news

Rampant medication use found among L.A. County foster, delinquent kids

February 17, 2015
Los Angeles County officials are allowing the use of powerful psychiatric drugs on far more children in the juvenile delinquency and foster care systems than they had previously acknowledged, according to data obtained by The Times through a Public Records Act request.…

Why Do We Treat Child Rape Victims This Way?

February 13, 2015
“I’m angry,” 14-year-old Nikki told the judge. Sitting in a special juvenile court for commercially sexually exploited children, the diminutive teen slouched in her seat looking lost in her oversize county-issued sweat suit.…

Juvenile justice system treats victims as criminals

February 13, 2015
NCYL’s Kate Walker and her colleague Allison Newcombe , a staff attorney and Skadden Fellow at the Alliance for Children’s Rights in Los Angeles, wrote an op-ed that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on the continuing criminalization of CSEC victims. “Children like Nikki are…

Monitoring Truancy

October 29, 2014
Last spring at a truancy court appearance in front of Johnson County Justice of the Peace Pat Jacobs, a 17-year-old high school student who routinely skipped her last class of the day was ordered to wear an ankle monitor to convince her to take the…

D’Anthony’s Story

October 24, 2014
Foster care was a life of mind-numbing medications, head-spinning moves and, ultimately, heart-wrenching loneliness — until one adult finally listened and helped him realize there might be a better path…

FosterEd AZ Briefs State Legislators

September 18, 2014
Proponents of a program that links foster children with education advocates to improve their success in school want the Arizona Legislature to expand a pilot program now used just in Pima County.…