CLC’s focus is to continue our services while being safe regarding COVID-19. CLC legal team and volunteer attorneys continue to regularly connect with clients via facetime and phone calls, and submit motions as needed. We know that youth in foster care are very vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19. Clients are sharing that they are having a hard time staying home, unable to visit with siblings and family, and have limited or no access to mental health support.

Knowing all of this, Children’s Law Center of MN, along with other legal services in Minnesota, wrote to Governor Walz to ask that CLC (along with many other legal services organizations) be exempt from the “Stay at Home” executive order so we can continue to provide essential services to our clients. Shortly after Governor Walz’s announcement on Wednesday, we got word that child protection is included. 

Additionally, CLC partnered with a diverse coalition of organizations urging state and county officials to respond quickly to the threat that COVID-19 poses to youth involved in Minnesota’s juvenile justice system. COVID-19 and MN Juvenile Justice Letter 3.2020