Youth Advocacy & Policy Lab

Arjun Gananathan ’24 is the winner of the 2024 Ralph D. Gants Access to Justice Award, honored for his leadership in the Youth Advocacy and Policy Lab and the Criminal Justice Institute.

Brenna Phillips ’24 spent the past three years helping create community on the Harvard Law School campus, and plans to use her degree to promote education reform.

Students cheered one another on to celebrate the culmination of their passion and hard work in the field of youth advocacy during the Youth Advocacy & Policy Lab graduation ceremony on April 9.

Homeschooling reform advocates Elizabeth Bartholet and James Dwyer discuss meaningful homeschooling regulations to prevent abuse and promote higher educational standards.

In evaluating President Biden's first 100 days, Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Bartholet says the president has been a champion for children and families, but she hopes he will also reform the current homeschooling regime .

As more schools plan for remote learning, Elizabeth Bartholet and James Dwyer argue that school districts, child protective services, and other agencies across the nation must adopt new safeguards to prevent and respond to incidents of child maltreatment.

In recognition of their demonstrated excellence in representing clients and undertaking advocacy or policy reform projects, Amy Volz ’18 and Ha Ryong Jung (Michael) ’18 were named the 2018 recipients of the David A. Grossman Exemplary Clinical Student Award, named in honor of the late Clinical Professor David Grossman ’88.

The Child Advocacy Program (CAP) of Harvard Law School recently received a $250,000 gift from Children of All Nations (CAN). The gift, which will be distributed over five years, will provide funding to CAP to pursue its international human rights work on behalf of unparented children and their right to family.

Elizabeth Bartholet '65, renowned child welfare advocate and founding faculty director of Harvard Law School’s Child Advocacy Program, has been at the center of many public conversations following the discovery of the child, once known as Baby Doe, but since identified as Bella Bond.

Five Harvard Law School professors presented a sampling of their innovative ideas in late May at the 2014 Harvard Law School Thinks Big lecture, an annual event that challenges faculty to explain those big ideas in short talks.

Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Bartholet received an award from the National Human Rights Committee of Qatar, in Doha, on Jan. 8, 2014. The award was presented by Sultan Hassan al Jamali, assistant secretary general of the National Human Rights Committee of Qatar.

34 Harvard Law School faculty members and 24 faculty from Boston College Law School have signed a letter urging the U.S. Congress to support the core principles in the pending legislation known as CHIFF (Children in Families First), S. 1530 and H.R. 3323.

Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Bartholet, faculty director of HLS’s Child Advocacy Program, has released two new reports challenging the long-held assumption that racial bias is responsible for the disproportionately high numbers of black children in foster care. 

Children in foster care experience daunting challenges of stability and security in the school system, according to participants in the program “On the Road to Educational Equality,” held at Harvard Law School on May 24.

African-American children, who account for just 15 percent of all children in the U.S., represent more than a third of children placed in foster care. The question is: Why? That controversial issue and others surrounding society’s efforts to protect children were the focus of the conference “Race & Child Welfare: Disproportionality, Disparity, Discrimination: Re-Assessing the Facts, Re-Thinking the Policy Options,” held January 28-29 at Harvard Law School.

Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow was honored at the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Massachusetts Advocates for Children (MAC) on November 13, along with Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, and the late Senator Edward Kennedy.

“Much of the world…focuses on the bad things that happen when kids get placed in international adoption. When you shut down international adoptions in order to address bad things which occasionally happen, what you do is commit monumental human rights violations.” That was the testimony of Harvard Law School Professor and Faculty Director of HLS’s Child Advocacy Program Elizabeth Bartholet ’65 before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Nov. 6.

Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Bartholet ’65 will testify before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on November 6 regarding the “Human Rights of Unparented Children and International Adoption Policies” in the Americas. The hearing comes after a request made by the HLS Child Advocacy Program (CAP) and the Center for Adoption Policy.