Whether on behalf of an individual or a group, SLC has secured needed services and educational placements to allow children to reach their potential.

See Cases Here

A kindergartener and first-grader are two of the more than 36,000 children with mental health or behavioral needs in Florida who are involuntarily hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation under Florida’s Baker Act each year. These two children with disabilities were repeatedly Baker Acted instead of being provided with appropriate behavioral supports and interventions required by federal law. Over the objections of their parents who were present, police handcuffed and Baker Acted the children from school using state law procedures that are developmentally inappropriate, traumatizing, and utilized disproportionately against children of color. Co-counseling with Three Rivers Legal Services, we sued under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. We obtained settlements to provide individual relief and negotiated systemic changes to prevent the school district’s future overuse and misuse of the Baker Act, including district-wide training, increased de-escalation efforts, and allowing children to go home with parents who object to the Baker Act.

See Cases Here

Part of SLC’s work to improve children’s services involves creating affirming school environments for LGBTQ+ youth.

Learn More Here

In an effort to reduce the health-harming legal needs of children served by the University of Florida (UF), Southern Legal Counsel is partnering with UF Pediatrics to offer the Healthy Kids MLP to UF’s pediatric patients. Piloted in the Severe Asthma Clinic, the MLP expanded to the Pediatric Endocrinology Division, the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Division, and the Youth Gender Program. SLC attorneys also take referrals for legal services from doctors and providers in the Sickle Cell Clinics, Diabetes Clinics, and at UF Pediatrics. Southern Legal Counsel staff are on-site during clinic hours, meeting with families and collaborating with doctors and nurses to deliver holistic care to patients. In 2020-21, we assisted over 100 children with educational and other health-harming legal needs through the MLP across 19 counties in North and Central Florida (67% of our MLP pediatrics patients with school issues are students of color). We also train UF pediatric medical providers (nurses, residents, doctors, social workers, medical students, staff) to recognize health harming legal needs to increase referrals and address racial disparities. Read an article about the Healthy Kids Medical-Legal Partnership in UF Health’s The Post.

See more of Our Work in Healthcare Here

A strong educational system is vital to the development of an informed citizenry. While the citizens of Florida repeatedly voiced their wishes in the Florida Constitution that the State of Florida provide a high quality public school education, the State failed to do so. In 2009, SLC filed a declaratory action under the Florida Constitution on behalf of public school students in Florida against state officials to challenge the failure to provide a high quality education. A four-week televised trial in Citizens for Strong Schools, et al. v. Florida State Bd. of Educ. showed tremendous disparities and a school system that was not working for struggling students, students of color, children with disabilities, and students living in poverty. The trial court ruled that while there were problems with failing schools, it had no authority to order relief. Co-counsel were Tim McLendon, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, Baker Donelson, and Deb Cupples.

On appeal, the Florida Supreme Court issued a narrowly divided opinion and upheld a First District Court of Appeal ruling that the issue of adequacy in public education is non-justiciable, meaning that the Court cannot intervene in “political questions,” based on the doctrine of separation of powers. Read the opinion. 262 So. 3d 127 (Fla. 2019). Justices Pariente and Lewis both wrote fiery dissents with all three dissenting justices concurring in each of the dissenting opinions (Pariente, Lewis and Quince).

See Cases Here

For many years, SLC successfully fought for an improved juvenile justice system. Bobby M. v. Martinez, Case No. TCA 83-7003 (N.D. Fla., J. Paul), 907 F. Supp. 368 (N.D. Fla. 1995); Jodi Siegel, Reforming Florida's Juvenile Justice System: a Case Example of Bobby M. v. Chiles, 19 Fla. State Univ. L. Rev. 693 (Winter 1992). SLC and co-counsel filed a statewide class action suit on behalf of approximately 1,000 youth confined to Florida's juvenile training schools, which then were the only facilities for youth in the delinquency system. The suit challenged the conditions and practices of those schools, and alleged unconstitutional conditions of confinement and inappropriate placements. Preliminary injunctions banned hogtying, restricted lock up, barred admission of males under age 13, prohibited admissions of any females, prohibited admissions of runaways, truants and status offenders regardless of age, and closed the facility located in Ocala (McPherson Training School). On the eve of trial, the State settled. Three consent decrees were entered that phased down the two remaining schools to 130 youths each, permanently closed the lock-up units, mandated treatment and educational services, provided access to counsel, and required the development of a new juvenile justice system.

See Cases Here