Required Clinic Component: Child Advocacy Clinic (4-5 fall clinical credits). This clinic and course are bundled; your enrollment in the clinic will automatically enroll you in this required course.

Additional Co-/Pre-Requisites: None.

By Permission: No.

Add/Drop Deadline: Early drop of August 1, 2022.

LLM Students: International students on F-1 student visas are required to have Curricular Practical Training (CPT) authorization; LL.M. students are not eligible for CPT.

The Child Advocacy Clinic is an externship clinic where students are placed for fieldwork in a legal setting in the child advocacy arena.  The course is the companion seminar.  The Clinic and accompanying seminar are designed to educate students about a variety of substantive areas impacting the lives of children, and the different systems that are meant to serve them.  In addition, the course exposes students to a range of social change strategies to encourage critical thinking about the pros and cons of different approaches. The Clinic is relevant not only for students with a particular interest in children’s issues, but also for those more generally interested in social change.

Enrollment Options: The Child Advocacy Clinic offers three different clinical fieldwork options: a fall-only clinic, a spring-only clinic, and a winter-spring clinic.  The clinical seminar is taken concurrently with the fieldwork.  All clinic students participate in both the classroom seminar and a clinical fieldwork component during the fall semester.

During the seminar, students bring into the classroom their varied fieldwork experiences, presenting on both specific projects and cases in which they are engaged, and also their placement organization’s larger vision for improving conditions for children involved in the child welfare, education, and juvenile justice systems. Students reflect on each other’s experiences, consider which strategies in the field are working and why, and evaluate the benefits and limitations of different approaches. Students will learn about and thoughtfully consider the unique legal issues affecting young people through reflections, readings and class discussions.

Once enrolled in the Clinic, the Child Advocacy Program (CAP) will provide students with a list of fieldwork placement sites and their potential projects. Students will give CAP information about their background and interests and rank their placement preferences. CAP will then match students with a placement based on their preferences, the organizations’ needs, and CAP’s mission to provide students with a broad spectrum of experiences. Visit the CAP Clinic webpage for more information about the Clinic, including answers to frequently asked questions.

This course is part of the Child Advocacy Program (CAP). Please see the CAP website for information about other related courses.