Legal Advocacy & Impact Litigation

We work strategically and collaboratively with co-counsel partners, community organizations, and named plaintiffs to bring impact litigation that represents broad classes of children and youth across multiple public systems.

Browse Legal Cases

Focus AreaCase Jurisdiction

StatusCase TypeLocation

COPAA v. DeVos, 2018

Filing Date2018-07-12

This lawsuit filed on behalf of Council of Parents Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) seeks to ensure timely compliance with an important U.S. Department of Education regulation.

Active

M.B. v. Howard

Filing Date2019-09-06

In November 2018, a group of young people in foster care in Kansas, represented by NCYL and its partners, filed a lawsuit challenging Kansas’s failure to protect the safety and well-being of children and youth in the custody of the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF).

Active

Freeman v. County of Riverside

Filing Date2020-06-01

Prior to passing California Senate Bill 190 (SB 190), counties throughout the state charged fees to families for administrative costs associated with their children's involvement in the juvenile court system.

Active

D.S. v. Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families

Filing Date2021-01-28

The state of Washington denies hundreds of children in foster care the most fundamental and basic of rights owed when a child is placed in government custody: a place to live and the support and services needed to return home.

Active

Alicia B. v. Dannel Malloy

Filing Date2015-12-29

NCYL brought this case on behalf of two students to affirm the plaintiffs' constitutional right to a meaningful education and to prohibit the practice of offering independent study as an alternative educational opportunity.

Active

Antioch Unified School District Settlement

Filing Date2015-03-25

This agreement addresses the District's failure to identify, evaluate and provide special education services and supports to African American students with disabilities, and the exclusion of African American students through excessive suspension and expulsion, and other forms of exclusionary discipline that unnecessarily deny students access to classroom instruction.

Inactive

Tonisha Smith v. Alameda County

Filing Date2021-08-01

Under California law, every youth in foster care is entitled to a safe place to live at all times. With partners Youth Law Center and Morgan Lewis LLP, National Center for Youth Law has filed a complaint against Alameda County and its Social Service Agency on behalf of a youth in extended foster care who experienced more than two weeks of homelessness because the agency failed to provide her with a place to live.

Active

Planned Parenthood v. Promesa Behavioral Health

Filing Date2016-02-19

The California Constitutional right to privacy protects the fundamental right of California women to retain personal control over the integrity of their bodies and to decide whether and when to parent.

Inactive

Brazwell v. Wagner

Filing Date2010-03-23

This case challenged California's policy of denying cash assistance to relative caregivers when the children they care for get in trouble with the law and are returned home on probation.

Inactive