The Alliance for Children’s Rights is seeking a dedicated individual to join our Education Program as an Advocate/Attorney. This is an exempt, full-time paid position.
The Alliance: The Alliance for Children’s Rights is a nonprofit organization that provides free holistic legal services and advocacy to youth and families impacted by child welfare and juvenile justice systems in Los Angeles County, and works to enact policy changes statewide. Our lawyers, advocates, and social workers, together with hundreds of pro bono attorneys and community volunteers, work to ensure that those we serve have the tools to overcome barriers to stability and success, and access to the education, healthcare, and financial supports that they need. Since 1992, we have helped over 150,000 children. For more information visit: www.allianceforchildrensrights.org.
The Education Team: The Education Program prides itself on providing its team members with the support and resources to be successful. We believe that education (including early intervention) services are essential in creating opportunity for youth facing systemic barriers to success, especially for children of color and children with disabilities – both of whom are disproportionately overrepresented in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. We ground our advocacy in our clients’ goals and our vision for creating education equity from an intersectional perspective.
What Your Impact Will Be:
• Support children with disabilities and their families, within the education, early intervention, child welfare, and juvenile justice systems to secure the education services our clients have identified as necessary to their success in school and in life, by providing zealous advocacy in IFSP and IEP meetings, informal dispute resolution, and mediations.
• Train and supervise pro bono attorneys, interns, and law clerks.
• Assist in the development and delivery of community trainings and tools to support clients, caregivers, and other stakeholders (e.g., CASA, social workers, probation officers) in understanding special education and/or early intervention rights.
• Coordinate services with social workers, probation officers, children’s attorneys, and juvenile courts to ensure appropriate special education and/or early intervention services.
The Ideal Candidate Will Possess:
• California bar admission or a minimum of three years of legal training or experience including but not limited to attending law school, paralegal training, or legal advocacy experiences.
• Personal, educational, or professional experience/interest in: regional center early intervention and/or school district special education advocacy; child welfare, juvenile justice, and/or education systems (e.g., former teacher or social worker, CASA,); and/or working with diverse populations, towards goals of equity and racial justice.
• Bilingual Spanish language skills valued, but not required.
The above statements are of a general nature and are intended to describe level of work being performed. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities and duties of the position.
Covid-19 Considerations:
Normally, this position would work from our Los Angeles office. However, due to Covid-19, this position will temporarily work remotely from home. This position may be asked to return to work in the office at any time and at the employer’s discretion.
Applying: To be considered, please send a cover letter and resume to our Program Director, Jill Rowland, at JRowland@alliancecr.org. Please include in your cover letter any relevant experiences, background, or perspective, professional or otherwise, you have in working with diverse populations and/or towards goals of equity and racial justice. Salary is commensurate with experience. Benefits include health, dental, and life insurance plans, as well as vacation and sick leave policies.
The Alliance for Children’s Rights is committed to building and supporting a culturally diverse and inclusive environment that values all staff members’ backgrounds and perspectives in our work. We strongly encourage individuals from all traditionally underrepresented communities to apply. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. We are an Equal Employment Opportunity employer, and prohibit discrimination against employees or applicants because of race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, veteran status, or any other unlawful basis.
Type: Full-time.
To apply, please e-mail your resume to jrowland@alliancecr.org .