The Legal Needs of Immigrant Children

The Legal Needs of Immigrant Children: How attorneys, advocates, and service providers can help

There are thousands of immigrant children in Massachusetts. They face
issues with language, acculturation, immigration status, education
level, and trauma. They are caught up in complex systems and face
distinctive barriers to accessing benefits, services, and education.

Our experienced faculty provides practical advice for attorneys,
advocates and service providers working with immigrant children and
their families, including:

• Immigration rights: Strategies for obtaining legal residency

• Education rights: Preventing school exclusion based on residency and legal mandates governing language-accessible education

• Rights to accessing benefits and health programs

• Child welfare laws for immigrant children

• How immigration status plays out in probate court proceedings

• Children's status in ICE raids

Faculty includes staff from: The Children's Law Center of
Massachusetts, the Department of Children and Families, Greater Boston
Legal Services, Mass. Advocates for Children, MIRA Coalition, Mass. Law
Reform Institute, Multicultural Education Training and Advocacy, and
South Coastal Counties Legal Services.

This program is open to eveyone who works with immigrant children,
including community center and school staff.  Registration information
will be available at www.mcle.org

Sponsored by the Children's Law Support Project, a collaboration of
Mass. Advocates for Children, the Children's Law Center of
Massachusetts and state and local legal services programs to identify
and address the otherwise untended legal needs of Massachusetts
children from low-income families.