The Latino Child and the Law | Friday, November 7, 2014
This national symposium brings together experienced practitioners, renowned academics, organizers, advocates, and law students from across the country to discuss the various areas in which the rights of the Latino community are being advanced or defended.
The symposium is scheduled for Friday, November 7, 2014 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at NYU School of Law, Lipton Hall, 108 West Third Street. There is no cost to attend the symposium, however, seating is limited and advance registration is required. Lunch will be provided free of charge. CLE Credit may be offered subject to state accreditor approval.
Please register by October 31. RSVP here.
Scheduled panels include:
The Latino Child, Immigration Reform, and the Humanitarian Crisis
This year the United States witnessed an unprecedented jump in unaccompanied children arriving from Central America. According to the U.S. Border Patrol, 47,000 children have arrived so far in 2014. The 2008 Trafficking Victims Reauthorization Protection Act provides special protections for vulnerable populations, including certain children immigrants and refugees escaping civil unrest. Recent media attention on child arrivals has again highlighted the critical need for immigration reform and a reexamination of US policies affecting unaccompanied children. This panel will discuss federal and local response to the 2014 events; how the executive and legislative branches could resolve their impasse on immigration reform as it pertains to unaccompanied children; and efforts on the part of the bar to expand and improve the legal services available to this category of immigrants.
The Latino Child and Access to Quality Pre-K through 12 Education
A quality education is the first gateway to career success and civic engagement, but educational inequality during a child’s formative years has led to a quantifiable achievement gap separating Latinos from other ethnic groups. Apart from the economic factors, educational conditions for the Latino child are in their current state due to a failure to address issues such as language barriers and school segregation. This panel will discuss litigation efforts to undo school board election systems that exclude Latino representation; recent lawsuits challenging public school funding systems that shortchange predominantly minority communities; and the push to adopt publicly-funded universal pre-k education.
The Latino Child and Juvenile Justice Reform
On any given day there are an estimated 18,000 Latino children incarcerated in the United States for mostly non-violent offenses. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act requires states to identify and remove racial inequality among incarcerated youth, but this ideal is far from the present reality. Advocates argue that the “adultification” of children in the justice system and the privatization of youth detention facilities further aggravates the experience of Latino youth. Panelists will discuss topics such as the pending reauthorization of relevant federal legislation; the status of federal mandates to states to reduce “disproportionate minority contact” in their justice systems; and bringing community-based prevention programs and alternative adjudication to legal fruition.