Legal Advocacy & Impact Litigation

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

The Flores Settlement Agreement established national minimum standards for the treatment, placement, and release of detained immigrant children.

This lawsuit challenges egregious delays in the release of detained immigrant children to their families resulting from new policies and practices that subject parents and others to unwarranted fingerprint checks.

This lawsuit charges the government with inappropriately detaining children in unnecessarily restrictive detention centers without fair process, unlawfully medicating children without appropriate authorization, and failing to promptly release children to family members.

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.

seeks to ensure timely compliance with an important U.S. Department of Education regulation that is intended to ensure students that need special education are being correctly identified.

Settled in 2021, this case will bring transformative, structural change to Kansas’s broken child welfare system by ending extreme placement instability and ensuring children receive the mental health care they need.

This lawsuit alleges Riverside County of illegally collecting juvenile administrative fees.

This lawsuit alleges Washington has violated the rights of foster children with disabilities by denying them 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.