School: Emory University School of Law

My internship with the Barton Child Law & Policy Clinic has been a crash course in state politics as well as Georgia's child advocacy system. I came to the clinic because I was interested primarily in the process (how to influence the state legislature) and only secondarily, content (juvenile law). My greatest testament to the clinic, however, is that after only ten weeks, I could see myself pursuing a career as a juvenile law advocate.

The program began with an intensive four days of multi-disciplinary training covering everything from the history of juvenile law in the U.S. to hot issues emerging both in Georgia and nationally, to interview techniques for young children. Because this was the tenth year of the orientation program, the presenters seemed uniformly organized and excellent.

The training also brought together more than 50 students placed in juvenile internships throughout Georgia. It was refreshing to meet the other students, drawn to juvenile law from a wide range of geographic and educational backgrounds. The training continued throughout the summer as we met again as a group several times to compare our various internship experiences and visit a Child Advocacy Center, a neo-natal intensive care unit, and this year's "Celebration of Excellence" in honor of foster youth who were graduating from high school or college.

I worked on four research projects this summer as well as several side pieces. The first was a co-written paper on the 50 states' progress in codifying independent living statutes for youth who are likely to age out of foster care once they turn 16. Although it affects a small proportion of foster youth each year, very few states have sufficient programs in place to help those foster youth transition towards independence. Since 1999, federal law has required states to start helping kids plan their future from as early as age 13 -- ensuring that by the time they reach 16 they have basic budgeting and cooking skills, an idea of how and where they will live, and a plan to continue their education or begin to work.

While the nature of the work here was statutory research (far removed from that of interns in other placements who interviewed children, spent time in court, and had direct client contact), it did touch a nerve. As a middle-class suburban kid who grew up in a stable family and was privileged enough to attend college and now law school, I don't know I would have had the skills necessary to live on my own at age 18 or 19, let alone 16. Growing up that quickly is difficult and trying in the best circumstances, even with the financial and moral support of a loving family.

My second project was a follow-up paper which examined the progress states have made in implementing independent living programs. Just as there is a key difference between authorization and appropriation (passing "No Child Left Behind" was easy -- actually funding it was trickier), there is a similar difference between codifying law and putting it into practice. I learned that while fewer than a dozen states have sufficiently codified independent living statutes, only a handful of those have been able to transform the legislature's ideas into real outcomes for foster youth.

The second part of my summer consisted of two statutory language comparisons: first, checking to see how much of the proposed "Kenny A." settlement language duplicated or incorporated language from last year's failed "Bill of Rights for Children in Foster Care." Consistent with good politics, I learned that much of the duplication was confined to a portion of the settlement which had no legal value but was instead included among mere "aspirational guidelines."

My final project was to study proposed changes to Georgia's Juvenile Code to ensure they complied with the federal requirements of the Adoption and Safe Families Act. Ironic that the project was to verify that the proposed simplification of a Georgia statute so long and convoluted that it was difficult to follow in practice conformed with a federal law so long and convoluted that literal books have been written to summarize it.

In addition to those papers, I also developed a power point presentation for Professor Mary Margaret Oliver to use at a symposium on public health and the law; I prepared background documents; and I submitted notes from DFCS & DHR committee meetings and summarized several law review articles for lobbyists.

I came to law school after four years of policy work in Washington, DC, with the goal of returning there to practice policy work at a higher level. This summer was a valuable reminder that all politics is local, and that federal laws written in DC don't necessarily trickle down in practice to help a deprived eight year-old girl living in Cobb County, Georgia. This summer's experience not only introduced me to some of the issues and players involved in Georgia's juvenile law but also taught me the precision demanded of even informal memos. I'll return to school with a basic knowledge and vocabulary of substantive juvenile law. More importantly, I'll return with an awakened interest in juvenile justice and child advocacy.

I began this summer wanting to learn how to lobby the Georgia legislature; I ended this summer wanting to lobby the Georgia legislature to give children a greater voice.