After welcoming remarks from University of Baltimore School of Law Dean LaVonda Reed and an overview of CFCC’s strategic plan from CFCC Executive Director Aubrey Edwards-Luce, the first panel of the CFCC 2025 Symposium gave a truthful accounting of the many systemic barriers that work against family well-being. Experts in law, public defense, mental health advocacy, research, and racial justice explored how structural inequities and policy failures hinder families’ access to basic needs such as healthcare, housing, and education. Moderated by Cathy Krebs of the ABA Children’s Rights Litigation Committee, panelists Alyssa Fieo, Marisol Garcia, Miranda Lynch-Smith, and Zakiya Sankara-Jabar discussed how poverty, bureaucratic obstacles, and under-resourced systems compound family instability. Lynch-Smith, Garcia, and Sankara-Jabar presented that demonstrated the breadth of hardship that families face—such as millions of children living in poverty, insufficient access to mental health treatment, and the disproportionate surveillance and punishment of Black and Native families. The conversation underscored how laws and systems exacerbate hardship by criminalizing poverty, failing to meet mental health needs, and pushing children into punitive education and legal systems.

The panelists also examined why these barriers persist and what effective interventions look like. Fieo explained how educational funding is structured so that schools with higher levels of poverty and more non-white students receive less funding and fewer resources and services. Lynch-Smith pointed to entrenched narratives about “personal responsibility” being used to justify removing federal support for struggling families and added that institutional racism operates by normalizing processes that “make Black and Native families more visible to punitive systems, less visible to supportive ones.” Despite these longstanding barriers, the experts gave the audience hope by identifying promising bright spots. Garcia shared about her organization’s mental health legal advocacy program that improves family outcomes and reduces state costs. Sankara-Jabar elevated the power of families asserting their rights and advocating for their children every day. Fieo spotlighted recent policy shifts in support of restorative practices and the work of Maryland’s community schools, which provide integrated support services to students and families. Collectively, the discussion called for a systemic redesign rooted in racial equity, prevention, and economic support—recognizing that strengthening families’ access to basic resources and legal advocacy is essential to improving health and well-being.