Children’s Law Center of Minnesota promotes the legal rights and well-being of children and youth. CLC’s staff and volunteers provide direct representation of children and youth, primarily in the child welfare system, and advocate for changes in the systems that affect their lives.
Children and youth who experience foster care are often in need of resources to help them navigate their situation. Here you will find a list of available resources, such as answers to common questions, resources for homeless youth,… Read More
Because the smallest voice in the courtroom should be the loudest. Volunteer attorneys are crucial in providing children a voice in judicial proceedings. CLC holds several training sessions a year for attorneys, judges, social workers, and other child advocates. CLC recruits… Read More
Kids in Foster Care Need Your Support Children’s Law Center of Minnesota gives abused and neglected children and youth a voice in their future. We do this by providing free legal representation to 800 children in foster care…. Read More
Children’s Law Center of Minnesota gathers a list of upcoming trainings in the area of Children and the Law, hosted by CLC and other organizations. All trainings are linked to their original source for additional information and registration.
Click here to access the list of upcoming trainings.
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February 28, 2024
Children’s Law Center of Minnesota Achieves Victory for Youth in Foster Care at the Minnesota Court of Appeals
Children’s Law Center of Minnesota (CLC), a nonprofit organization that provides free legal services to youth in foster care, secured an important decision for Minnesota youth in foster care in the case, In the Matter of the Welfare of the Child of: K. O. and D. W., Commissioner of Human Services. With the help of dedicated volunteer attorneys, CLC successfully won a precedential case at the Minnesota Court of Appeals prohibiting counties from detaining non-delinquent foster care youth in locked detention facilities.
In 2023, six of CLC’s clients were detained in a juvenile detention center even though they were non-delinquent youth. For days and months at a time, the county responsible for their custody and care opted to detain them in locked confinements despite their status as non-delinquent youth and against the repeated pleas from CLC attorneys that these holds were unlawful.
Following a CLC client’s second unlawful incarceration at a juvenile detention center, CLC staff attorney Katie Mathurin and volunteer attorney Chad Snyder filed a motion for the immediate release of the youth. After the district court ruled to continue to detain the youth, a team of volunteer attorneys from the Fredrikson law firm, Rick Snyder, Shantal Pai, Thomas Wheeler and Megan Helstrom, appealed the decision to the Court of Appeals. On behalf of CLC’s client, the team argued that the statutory authority (Minn. Stat. § 260C.181) clearly limited a county’s ability to hold a youth in a secure detention facility for only 24 hours, and after that, must be released to a relative or shelter care facility. The appellate court agreed.
“This decision sets a precedent that will protect youth from being locked up simply because they are in the child protection system and that system failed to provide them with the home and services they need,” CLC staff attorney Katie Mathurin says.
“Our clients are removed from their parents for their own safety, and they are to receive protection and services to help them and their families,” CLC managing attorney Anne Tyler Gueinzius says. “They are not to be placed in foster care to punish them for the harm they have received.”
CLC extends its gratitude to the zealous volunteer attorneys who contributed to this landmark decision. CLC and its volunteers will continue to fight to protect the rights of youth in foster care.
