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.
About the Author
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...
Read the full post ›
Colorado’s new mandated reporting law highlights a critical question for youth-serving organizations: Do we require staff members to report their concerns internally or require them to go directly to child protection authorities? Until this year, Colorado allowed staff to take concerns to supervisors who in their turn were supposed to contact authorities. Because of concerns…
Today, September 10, is World Suicide Prevention Day. It’s a good time to reflect on the role that mentoring can play in addressing the problem. According to the CDC, young people under the age of 25 have the lowest rates of suicide, but suicide is the second leading cause of death for young teens. Even…
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act require youth-serving organizations to provide reasonable accommodations for disabilities, including developmental delays, behavioral disorders, and mental health problems. Putting that principle into practice can be very difficult, particularly when many mental health and behavioral disorder diagnoses depend entirely on subjective criteria. It…
A debate raging in Washington state captures in microcosm the controversy throughout the country about the child welfare system can balance the safety of children against the trauma of unnecessary removals. In 2021, Washington state lawmakers passed the Keeping Families Together Act, with the goal of reducing unnecessary removals of children from their homes and…
In two weeks, I’ll be speaking at an Adventist Attorney’s Conference and Retreat in Victoria, BC, Canada. My topic will be “Safeguarding the Vulnerable: Avoiding and Responding to Domestic Violence and Abuse.” I have always enjoyed attending these conferences and forging friendships, even though I’m not Adventist. This year’s conference promises the usual outstanding legal…
One area that all youth-serving organizations must address is how to accommodate children with disabilities. It can be a complicated question, such as when a child’s disability harms other children or when your program simply cannot accommodate a disability without completely changing the program. Youth programs must find a way to balance and care for…
A recent court case from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals dives into the tricky intersection of religious accommodations and workplace policies. Although this particular case involved a public school, the principles that the court reviewed will apply to all youth organizations balancing competing concerns of staff and client rights. Where The Case Started Brownsburg…
A new study shines a spotlight on something we might not always think about: how unpredictable environments in childhood can have lasting effects on mental health, behavior, and even physical health by the time kids hit adolescence. There are some good pointers in the results for those of us who work with kids in chaotic…
One of the most common mistakes I see my youth-serving clients make is having written child protection policies that they don’t adequately explain to on-the-ground staff. The case I highlighted last week may be an example of that problem. Having written policies that your staff members either don’t know about or don’t follow can set…
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has reaffirmed the ministerial exception to employment laws as applied to religious schools. A private Christian elementary school fired an assistant principal, who sued, claiming that his termination was retaliation for complaining about race and sex discrimination and for raising concerns that the school’s main funder might be a…