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.
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J.N. v. Oregon Department of Education
Filing Date2019-01-22
The State of Oregon has effectively denied hundreds of children with disabilities the opportunity to attend school for a full day, in violation of federal laws, the Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA), the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Rehabilitation Act.
In May 2025, the National Center for Youth Law and co-counsel Democracy Forward filed Angelica S. v. HHS, which challenges new U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) policies that have resulted in the separation of families and the prolonged detention of unaccompanied children in federal immigration custody.
In 2018, as part of the National Center for Youth Law's efforts to keep immigrant children in communities rather than in government custody, we filed, in partnership with the New York Civil Liberties Union and American Civil Liberties Union, Duchitanga v. Lloyd.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
