CAI Executive Director Robert C. Fellmeth’s OpEd on Recent Reform by the Children's Bureau Published by The Chronicles of Social Change

SAN DIEGO (February 13, 2019) – University of San Diego (USD) School of Law Children’s Advocacy Institute (CAI) Executive Director, Robert C. Fellmeth’s opinion editorial on recent reform by the Children’s Bureau of the Trump administration was published by The Chronicles of Social Change.

Professor Fellmeth, a registered republican for 40 years, has been a longstanding consumer advocate. He has advocated consistently for deregulation and restoration of market forces where possible. "Here is a decision," Fellmeth feels, "is consistent with those values." In his op-ed Fellmeth explains that he is “heartened by a recent reform by the Children’s Bureau of the Trump administration. It increases flexibility for states to manage their child protection systems, with the Social Security Title IV-E entitlement opened up to support high-quality legal representation for children and parents.”

Fellmeth also states, “[s]tudies indicate that having legal representation for children means less time in foster care, a faster path toward permanency, shorter court cases and reduced costs for states. This change is consistent with the new Family First Prevention Services Act and the Children’s Bureau’s vision on primary prevention.”

On February 6, 2019, CAI and law firms Morrison & Foerster and DeLaney & DeLaney LLC filed a class action complaint in Indiana federal court and represent plaintiffs from three counties in Indiana: Marion, Lake, and Scott. The complaint argues that by not guaranteeing attorneys to children in dependency court, the counties are violating the children’s constitutional rights to due process and equal protection.

Read the Op-Ed in The Chronicle of Social Change here.  To read the Class Action Complaint filed in Indiana click here.

About the Children’s Advocacy Institute

The Children’s Advocacy Institute (CAI), founded at the nonprofit University of San Diego School of Law in 1989, is one of the nation's premiere academic, research, and advocacy organizations working to improve the lives of children and youth, with special emphasis on improving the child protection and foster care systems and enhancing resources that are available to youth aging out of foster care.

In its academic component, CAI trains law students and attorneys to be effective child advocates throughout their legal careers. Its Child Advocacy Clinic gives USD Law students three distinct clinical opportunities to advocate on behalf of children and youth, and its Dependency Counsel Training Program provides comprehensive training to licensed attorneys engaged in or contemplating Dependency Court practice.

CAI's research and advocacy component, conducted through its offices in San Diego, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C., seeks to leverage change for children and youth through impact litigation, regulatory and legislative advocacy, and public education. Active primarily at the federal and state levels, CAI's efforts are multi-faceted—comprehensively and successfully embracing all tools of public interest advocacy to improve the lives of children and youth. To support CAI’s work, please visit law.sandiego.edu/caigift.

About the University of San Diego School of Law

Each year, USD educates approximately 800 Juris Doctor and graduate law students from throughout the United States and around the world.  The law school is best known for its offerings in the areas of business and corporate law, constitutional law, intellectual property, international and comparative law, public interest and taxation.

USD School of Law is one of the 84 law schools elected to the Order of the Coif, a national honor society for law school graduates.  The law school's faculty is a strong group of outstanding scholars and teachers with national and international reputations and currently ranks 36th nationally among U.S. law faculties in scholarly impact and 29th nationally in past-year faculty downloads on the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN). The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Founded in 1954, the law school is part of the University of San Diego, a private, independent, Roman Catholic university chartered in 1949.