The problems in Texas foster care persist, as does the federal court case involving children without places to go. The parties now have agreed to a panel of three experts, who are supposed to learn everything about this complex problem and provide recommendations in less than two months.   The State of Texas already has…

This post is part of a continuing series about responding to claims of abuse within a youth-serving organization. The first two posts discussed assembling your team and general principles for the team to follow. This post discusses first steps in an internal investigation. In many ways, the first 48 hours after you hear of a…

In my last post, I discussed the team that you need to put together to help respond to claims of abuse within a youth organization.  Now, let’s discuss general principles that the team needs to follow. Develop a Plan, and Don’t Delay Abuse allegations are serious and need to be addressed right away. Don’t accept…

One of the side effects of awareness of child abuse is an uptick in claims within youth organizations. We have had numerous clients contact us with reports that they are facing such claims. Sometimes, the allegation comes as part of a new lawsuit, in which case the lawyers and court system handle the allegation. Many…

October is National Bullying Prevention Month, so we will hear a lot of ideas about how to prevent school–based bullying.  Unfortunately, evidence about those ideas is hard to find. The Department of Justice evaluated 13 programs and found only 3 of them to be proven effective. Of the remaining, 7 are promising, but still lack…

The University of Iowa and numerous employees are liable to a religious student organization for discrimination in violation of the First Amendment guarantees of free speech and freedom of association. A Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of a trial court to hold the University of Iowa and several of its officials liable for violating…

The Department of Justice has issued a scathing report about the FBI’s failures to investigate reports of sexual assault by Larry Nassar.  Although the report focuses on violations of FBI policies, it has some important lessons for youth serving organizations, specifically the importance of documenting events and seeking outside expertise. I do want to resist…

Anti-bullying programs get a lot of attention these days, because everyone wants to spare children the trauma of true bullying. Yet in spite of our best efforts, the problem is not getting better, and some experts worry that we are creating new problems for our kids. One problem is that, contrary to what many parents…

One common question that I get is which parents have authority over the children in a program. As with all legal questions, it depends. In Georgia, for example, biological parents are considered the proper guardians of the child. If the parents are still married, then either parent may sign your contract and check a child…

The Americans with Disabilities Act and Sec. 504 prohibit discrimination against a child with a physical or mental impairment that “limits one or more major life activities.” In general, a facility must make “reasonable modifications” to its programs to accommodate a child’s disability. There are three important exceptions, namely that a program (1) can exclude…