About This Blog
Youth-serving organizations take on a serious responsibility when they open their doors to children and other vulnerable people. Fulfilling that responsibility well requires two things working together: a safety culture strong enough to prevent harm, and independent investigations credible enough to find the truth when someone alleges mistreatment.
Youth Services Law covers both. Posts examine the legal landscape, practical decisions, and organizational choices that shape how schools, camps, churches, colleges, faith-based groups, and community organizations protect the people in their care and respond when something goes wrong. The goal is the same in every post: precise, useful guidance for child protection and investigations.
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Featured Post
July 21, 2026
Youth-serving organizations that receive federal funding face a specific liability framework under Title IX that most administrators understand only in outline. The deliberate indifference standard sounds protective — you cannot be liable unless you responded unreasonably to known harassment. In...
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A recent study indicates that asking children to talk about “the first time” or “the last time” that something happened may confuse them. According to the study, children ages 6-9 tend to think that questions about the first/last/most recent “time” makes them think that adults are asking about the specific date or time rather than…
New York governor Kathy Hochul has signed a bill designed to give adult survivors of abuse the right to file suit, regardless of how long ago the statue of limitations expired. The statute will be in effect for one year, beginning six months from the date that the governor signed the bill. It is patterned…
A teacher cannot be disciplined for refusing to conceal from parents the preferred names and pronouns that their children adopt at school, according to a recent injunction from the federal district court in Kansas. A teacher challenged the school district’s policies of (1) requiring teachers to adopt a student’s preferred names and pronouns, and (2)…
Hot weather is coming, and with it we will hear more stories about kids left behind on busses and vans. It’s always a frightening event, and sometimes fatal. The greatest danger comes from sleeping or otherwise quiet children that the driver overlooks before locking up the bus. Now is a good time to review your…
Many people think that all youth-serving organizations must follow a rule requiring two adults in any activity involving children. It is a common rule, but it is not a standard requirement for one simple reason — many organizations cannot afford it. Such a rule only works when there are plenty of trained volunteers to care…
It’s not unusual for youth organizations to hear from law enforcement investigating crimes against children who are in our care. Sometimes, they are looking into incidents that happened elsewhere, but many times they are investigating claims of injuries in our programs. The officers may request video, staff interviews, or staff/student contact information. In my experience,…
An interesting study from Israel illustrates one of the core flaws that I have found in mandated reporting laws, which is that the emphasis on shifting the report to law enforcement doesn’t offer sufficient help to either the reporters or the victims. Law enforcement is good at one thing — prosecuting crimes — and it…
I often find myself in a case opposing a party who has designated his or her or a child’s treating therapist as an expert witness on various forensic issues. This arrangement is rarely, if ever, a good idea. I understand the temptation to save money by hiring one person instead of two. But a treating…
A fascinating and well-written federal court opinion explores the limits of university authority over a professor’s free speech. Nathaniel Hiers was an adjunct professor at the University of North Texas, and ran across a stack of pamphlets in the faculty lounge warning against various phrases that could be “microaggressions.” Hiers jokingly stuck a flyer on…
In this series, I have been discussing considerations that come into play when we need to depose children. The final, and for many lawyers the most frightening, issue in deposing children is how to ask questions of children. Like many tasks, it is more frightening than difficult. Fortunately, many other people have faced this same…