By Rebecca Stahl, CFCC Executive Director My first experience as CFCC’s Deputy Director was participating in the Center’s annual symposium four days after I started. That day in April 2019 was an incredible opportunity to meet the people in Baltimore and beyond, who shared our vision to improve the lives of children and families. I…

By Erin Carrington Smith, 2023 J.D. Candidate, University of Baltimore School of Law November 19, 2022, marked 25 years since the passage of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, Pub. L. No. 105-89, 111 Stat. 2115 (“ASFA”). The law was designed, in part, to address the problem of children languishing in foster care…

By: Neoshia R. Roemer From boarding schools to adoptions, family regulation has been at the heart of the legal relationship between the United States government and federally recognized Indian tribes. Removing Indian children from their homes and tribal communities was tied to an assimilation project with the end goal of terminating Indian tribes altogether. In…

By Teniola Oludare, Criminal Justice Intern To graduate from the University of Baltimore, we are required to complete 80 internship hours. I knew that if I was going to dedicate 80 hours to an internship, it had to be an area within my major (criminal justice) that I was interested in and one where I…

CFCC was strongly represented when the National Association of Counsel for Children (NACC) convened their annual conference in Baltimore on August 22–24. Team members from the University of Baltimore School of Law Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC) made three presentations showcasing different areas of our work. “Lessons from…

By Rohina Zavala, CFCC Truancy Court Program Coordinator During the Spring 2022 session, CFCC’s Truancy Court Program (TCP) worked with 85 students and their families at five Baltimore City Public Schools: Furley Elementary School, Franklin Square Elementary/Middle School, Mt. Royal Elementary/Middle School, the Academy for College and Career Exploration (ACCE) (middle/high school), and the Baltimore…

By Spencer Hall, TCP Attorney  On April 11, 2022, the Maryland General Assembly concluded its 444th legislative session having considered a wide range of issues impacting Maryland’s children and families. In keeping with CFCC’s mission to create, foster, and support a national movement to integrate communities, families, and the justice system to improve the lives…

By Rebecca Stahl, CFCC Executive Director Across the country, recent governmental actions are attacking LGBTQ+ children, specifically transgender children. Much has already been written about the impact on children and their families from these actions. I write as a child advocate. I have spent more than fifteen years representing children and writing about children’s rights…

By Spencer Hall, CFCC TCP Attorney For the past nine years, first as a CFCC Student Fellow at the University of Baltimore School of Law, then as a staff member for CFCC’s Truancy Court Program, I have seen firsthand the many challenges faced by our community’s most vulnerable families and the impact that exclusionary school…