The Center for Children’s Advocacy is the largest nonprofit children’s law firm in New England, providing legal services, training and systemic reform advocacy to help vulnerable children in Connecticut.
The Center is seeking a staff attorney for its Educational Success Project to address racial, ethnic and economic disparities in children’s access to a quality education and ensure that children of color and low-income children have access to equitable educational services. The staff attorney will provide legal services, training and systemic reform advocacy regarding education rights of at risk children and youth. This is a full-time position, primarily located in the Center’s Bridgeport office, with some limited legal representation of children and youth in Hartford.
Responsibilities:
• Develop trainings and informational materials on children’s education rights and collaborate with community-based organizations to provide these to parents and professionals to increase their knowledge about children’s education rights.
• Develop and implement systemic reform initiatives, including legislative, administrative, litigation and public education efforts and initiatives to improve education systems serving indigent children, including reducing suspension of pre-K and Kindergarten students as well as improving education of children in the child welfare system. Collaborate with attorneys from other CCA projects to address systemic barriers that stretch across multiple systems and result in deep systemic inequities for children of color and low-income children.
• Provide legal consults and representation on education matters to:
• Children and families from Bridgeport, Norwalk, Stamford and select other Fairfield County towns in Pre-K and Kindergarten who are suspended from school;
• Department of Children and Families’ child welfare social workers in education matters for children in the care of the child welfare system;
• Clients of the Village for Families and Children in Hartford; and
• Oversee the Center’s high school-based legal clinic for teenagers at Harding High School in Bridgeport.
• Provide trainings for social workers and other clinical staff at the Village for Families and Children.
• Embrace and support the Center for Children’s Advocacy’s overall mission, standards, policies and procedures, and confidentiality guidelines including supporting the Center’s work with law students and volunteers.
Experience and qualifications:
• Demonstrated commitment to advocacy for indigent and vulnerable children and youth from marginalized communities.
• Connecticut Bar admission or eligible for timely admission to practice.
• Minimum of two years legal practice.
• Experience in education law required
• Cultural competence.
• Commitment to a dynamic advocacy model that combines direct legal services, training and systemic reform advocacy.
• Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to manage multiple roles, prioritize work, work independently with a minimum of supervision and instruction, as well as work with a team.
Please email cover letter and resume to Martha Stone, Executive Director, at [email protected] ASAP. Resumes will be accepted till position is filled.
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