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Barton Child Law and Policy Center Newsletter |
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September 30, 2010 Hearing on the Child Protection and Public Safety Act
The Senate Judiciary Committee will continue its discussion of the Child Protection and Public Safety Act ("the Act") in a hearing scheduled for September 30. The Act, which was initially introduced in 2009 as SB 292, would completely revise the Georgia Code's juvenile court provisions, which govern how our state responds to children and their families in cases of abuse, neglect, violations of criminal law by children, and other circumstances requiring court intervention. The Act aims to reorganize the O.C.G.A. Title 15, Chapter 11 for ease of understanding and application, to modernize substantive provisions to reflect advances in research and practice, and to bring Georgia into full compliance with federal laws applicable to juvenile court proceedings. The Act's lead sponsor is Senator Bill Hamrick (R-Carrolton). Although the Act did not pass in the 2010 legislative session, efforts to move the Act toward passage next session continue through an ongoing series of legislative hearings.
One of the improvements the Act would make to the juvenile code would be to reorganize it by subject matter. Thus, the bill is divided into 12 separate Articles, each dealing with a particular area of juvenile law. So far, the Senate Judiciary Committee has comprehensively reviewed Articles 1-6. The newly scheduled hearing will focus on Article 7, which governs delinquency cases. The hearing will be held on Thursday, September 30th from 2-4pm in room 450 of the Capitol.
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The Barton Center Welcomes Robin Nash Fellow Taylor Dudley
The Barton Center is pleased to announce the arrival of the first Robin Nash Post-Graduate Fellow in Law, Taylor Dudley, who joined the Center on August 16, 2010. As the Robin Nash Fellow, Taylor participates in the policy work of the Clinic, advises clinical students, and publishes articles on issues of juvenile law. She also assists with teaching the class "Child Advocacy: The Law, the Policy and the Players."
Taylor graduated magna cum laude from Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, California in 2010. At Whittier, she was a fellow for the Center for Children's Rights and a member of both the moot court and trial advocacy teams. Taylor was also an editor on Law Review and has published two articles on children's legal issues. She developed her interest in child welfare and advocacy while interning for the Orange County District Attorney's child abuse services team during her undergraduate education. While in law school, Taylor gained advocacy experience working for Public Counsel's children's rights project in Los Angeles, the Orange County juvenile court, the California Attorney General, the Honorable David O. Carter at the United States District Court, and for the Special Education Legal Clinic at Whittier Law School. Taylor was awarded the Dean's Citation for service to the law school and the Center for Children's Rights Fellow of the Year award. She received her BA from California State University, Long Beach.
The Robin Nash Fellowship was founded to honor the memory of former Barton Center Director Robin Nash, who worked tirelessly to improve the lives of others until his death in 2007. After 15 years in private practice, concentrating on rights of the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled, he served as a juvenile court judge in DeKalb County for 10 years. He joined the Barton Center Advisory Committee when the Center was created in 2000 and became full-time director in spring 2006.
Robin's energy, spirit and commitment to the children we serve have inspired us all. After his death, we searched for a fitting way to acknowledge his contributions to the Barton Center and to honor his memory. Because Robin took great joy in mentoring and encouraging new attorneys, we decided the best way to honor him is to continue in that tradition. Therefore, we launched the Robin Nash Fellowship Fund to provide opportunities for new law school graduates to learn about children's law issues and develop outstanding advocacy and leadership skills. We thank all of you who have contributed to the Fund so far for your generosity. We are pleased to have Taylor as the first Robin Nash Fellow, but we are already planning ahead for the next. If you would like to make a donation to help carry on this important program and tribute to Robin, please go to: https://secure.www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/EMR/onlinegiving/showGivingForm.jsp?form_id=1374 and select "School of Law" under Direction and "Robin Nash Fellowship" under Fund.
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Follow the Work of APPEAL for Youth on Steve Reba's Blog
Steve Reba is an attorney with the Barton Center's Juvenile Defender Clinic where he directs an Equal Justice Works project called APPEAL for Youth. The project, sponsored by Ford & Harrison LLP, provides holistic appellate representation to youthful offenders in Georgia's juvenile and criminal justice systems. Steve has begun blogging about his work in collaboration with the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, a project of the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University. Steve's blog follows the clients APPEAL for Youth represents, hoping to present a genuine look into a system that is largely unknown or misunderstood by the public. His posts go up weekly, and present moving stories of real young people who are impacted by Georgia's approach to juvenile and criminal justice. The latest installment, "Enter the Pipeline," was posted today. You can read this post, as well as archived stories on Steve's blog at: http://journalismfor.us/JJIE/tag/steve-reba/.
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Quick Links...
Donate. Your contribution directly supports the work of the Barton Child Law and Policy Center to improve the lives of abused, neglected and court-involved children. In the "select fund" drop down box, please choose "Robin Nash Fellowship" to help us launch the careers of talented new child advocates or choose "other" and write "Barton Center operations" to support all other aspects of our work. Thank you for your generous support; our work would not be possible without community contributions.
Join the Barton Center email list. The Barton Child Law and Policy Center sends weekly legislative updates when the Georgia General Assembly is in session. During the rest of the year we send periodic emails with information on upcoming educational opportunities, legislative and policy developments, research findings, and changes to law, policy and practice. Sign up here to receive important updates on children's law in Georgia.
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