During Coronavirus, High-Quality Legal Representation Can Be a Lifesaver for Families

Former Stoneleigh Fellow Kathleen Creamer co-authored an article for the Chronicle of Social Change explaining how the pandemic is reinforcing what we already know—access to a high-quality legal representation team can be the difference between traumatic and prolonged family separation and families receiving the support they need to keep their children safe at home.

June is National Reunification Month. A time when the child welfare community celebrates families who overcome great obstacles to be together. This year, there likely will be many fewer family reunifications to celebrate. The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted our nation’s child welfare system, which in the best of times struggles to reunite the families it is tasked with helping.

But states and counties that have come to rely on interdisciplinary legal representation – a model that includes social workers and peer advocates working alongside attorneys to fight for parents and children – have overcome the new barriers imposed by the pandemic to help families reunify.

The pandemic is reinforcing what we already know – access to a high-quality legal representation team can be the difference between traumatic and prolonged family separation and families receiving the support they need to keep their children safe at home.

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