School: Emory University School of Law

This summer I was placed at Kids in Need of Dreams (KIND) which is a truancy intervention project that aims to provide early and positive intervention with truant children. The program has a two faceted approach towards ending chronic unexcused school absences: 1) pairing juvenile clients with attorneys and guardians ad litem to represent their interests in educational neglect and truancy hearings and 2) to implement early intervention to preempt the occurrence of educational neglect cases.

One of the initial reasons I was so excited to be working at KIND was that, as a former teacher, I realized the connection between chronic school absence and academic failure. Many people assume that truancy is a problem associated with teenagers cutting school. What they don't realize is that there is usually a motivation behind the absence: depression, bullying, taking care of younger siblings because mom and dad are meth addicts, prostitution, drug addiction, child abuse, embarrassment at not have clean clothes, etc. KIND works in conjunction with the Fulton County Juvenile Courts and the Atlanta Bar Foundation to provide volunteer attorney and non-attorney partners to children involved with the juvenile court system. Additionally, the early intervention program aims to prevent children and parents from becoming involved with the juvenile courts in the first place. One of the more persuasive arguments towards devoting more attention to truancy (which traditionally has not been viewed as a `real' issue) is the fact that truancy is the number 1 predictor in boys and number 2 predictor in girls of future criminal activities.

Prior to joining KIND, I had no idea that truancy and educational neglect are gateways to greater problems children face. By keeping kids in school while simultaneously providing services that children need, KIND has assisted more than 2,600 children.

While at KIND, I have been a part of a warm and caring staff who will do whatever they can for their clients. I was able to view court room proceedings in truancy, educational neglect, and child deprivation cases. Attending court has assisted me in shaping my career plans and has given me a better indication of what child advocacy is all about.

Additionally, I helped to do a statistical analysis of KIND's effectiveness as a truancy and early intervention program. The statistical analysis that I helped to perform will be used to aid KIND in gaining more funding to help even more clients.

KIND is a nonprofit company situated on the fourth floor of the Fulton County Juvenile Court. One of the things I learned was that while KIND's mission is to reduce dropout rates, many people often assume that it provides additional services. These cases of mistaken identity are not limited to visitors to the juvenile courts, who many times enter the office looking for their records, lawyers, or parole officers but extend to other offices within the juvenile justice system. KIND's proactive stance towards ensuring the proper representation of their clients, seems to result in other members of the community attempting to shunt their responsibilities onto KIND staff. It has been interesting and educational to watch KIND staff navigate the emotionally charged nature of court politics to ensure that the proper actions are taken.

I was able to attend meetings between juvenile court judges, probation officers, KIND staff, and school social workers. The goal of these meetings was to establish norms so that educational neglect and truancy cases are being tried efficiently and consistently. One of the main problems with filing educational neglect and truancy cases is the nature of the court proceedings. Because no district attorneys are involved in the process, school social workers must be prepped on how to present their case to the judge. They must demonstrate the steps that the school has gone through to get the child to attend school, including sending notices to the family before charges are filed. Meanwhile KIND provides an attorney for the child (not the parent or guardian). The court wants to ensure that families are given every opportunity to avoid charges. This unique situation means that KIND is forced to educate school social workers as to the correct method of presenting a case. KIND facilitates the entire truancy and educational neglect process. I found attending these coordination meetings to be critical in my understanding of KIND's role within the juvenile justice system.

The bulk of my work at KIND involved doing legal research about status offenders and their due process rights. I found this research to be invaluable in my understanding of the unique nature of the juvenile court.

Overall, I found my experience at KIND to be both educational and enjoyable.