Children's Rights

See schedule oaccomplishments in 2023 we fought for a community-based response to the child mental health crisis. We continued our campaign to end the brutal practice of warehousing youth in unsafe institutions. We made inroads in our national movement to stop the unnecessary and disproportionate separation of black families and those living in poverty. And we defended the legal and human Rights of immigrant children. Addressing the child mental health crisis we sued Maryland for failing to oversee the administration of psychotropic medications to children in the foster system, where they are often sedated instead of receiving the mental health care they need. We reached an interim agreement requiring Iowa to provide intensive home and community-based mental health services to support the mental health needs of medicaid eligible children. Ending the institutionalization of children we filed a case against north carolina for its pervasive practice of unnecessarily placing children with mental and behavioral health needs in dangerous psychiatric institutions. In new york, we are building a youth-led coalition of lived experts to call on state legislators to stop institutionalizing kids and instead strengthen access to community services. Fighting for family integrity through federal and state hearings and national education campaigns, we advocated against family reporting mandates that separate families, overburden systems and hurt kids. We're representing older youth in los angeles, including young parents, who are taking a bold stand to disrupt the pipeline that funnels thousands of young adults from the foster system to homelessness. We secured the support of the un in calling on the u.s. to uphold its commitment to family integrity and adopt measures to reduce unnecessary, poverty-related child removals. With a coalition of advocates, we helped shape new u.s. rules that give kin foster parents equitable support to care for children. Protecting the Rights of immigrant youth as one of only three organizations with the authority to speak directly with children detained in federal immigration facilities, we held the government accountable for protecting their Rights and wellbeing. We filed a lawsuit in Tennessee to defend the Rights of immigrant children in the foster system, putting them on a pathway to permanent legal status and the chance for a better life.