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- Mark Your Calendar
for the next Child
Advocates Roundtable, which
will be held on September 18, 2008.
Agenda coming soon!!
- Our
Children, Our Duty, Our Future:
Access information about the state's budget
crisis, and find out how you can help
protect funding for children's programs
and services.
- Attorneys
New to Dependency Court Practice: Apply now to attend one of two free 20-hour MCLE training programs for attorneys
practicing in Dependency Court for one
year or less. CLICK
HERE to
apply now for one of the October 2008 sessions or to view the 2007 training sessions.
- Governor
Signs AB 3051 (Jones) (July
21, 2008)
- CAI
Supports S.3277 (Menendez), the Children's
Budget Act (July 22,
2008)
- Testimony
Submitted by First Star and
the Children’s Advocacy Institute
to U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Children
and Families, regarding the reauthorization
of CAPTA (June 26, 2008)
- CAI
Urges DHCS to Issue Reports
on Improving the CHDP Gateway and Creating
the Prenatal and Newborn Hospital Gateways
Without Further Delay (June
17, 2008)
- CAI
Comments on Judicial Council's
Proposed Juvenile Dependency Court Performance
Measures (June 2008)
- CAI
Comments on Judicial Council's
Proposed California Rule of Court Implementing
Portions of SB 39 (Migden) (June
2008)
- CAI
Comments on Blue Ribbon Commission
on Children in Foster Care Draft Recommendations
(May 13, 2008)
- "State
Secrecy and Child Deaths in the U.S."
A report by CAI and First Star Full
Report • Press
Release (Apr.
29, 2008)
- CAI Releases 2007
Children's Legislative Report Card
(Apr. 24, 2008)
- CAI Issues
White Paper on True Presumptive Eligibility
for Children (Mar.
31, 2008)
- CAI
Honors Outstanding Efforts by Legislators,
Legislative Staff (Mar.
11, 2008)
- Learn more about
CAI's Homeless
Youth Outreach Project.
- CAI
Files Amicus Curiae Brief with U.S. Supreme
Court in Daniels, et al. v. Philip Morris,
et al. (Dec.
28, 2007)
- Foster-Parent
Advocacy Groups Sue the State in Federal
Court, Seeking More Money for Parents
Caring for Abused and Neglected Foster
Children (Oct.
3, 2007)
- CAI Announces Winners of 2007
Price Child Health and Welfare Journalism
Awards (Aug.
2007)
- CAI
Report Urges State to Increase
Foster Family Home Rates (May
2007)
- CAI Releases Expanding
Transitional Services for Emancipated
Foster Youth: An Investment in California's
Tomorrow (Jan.
2007)
- Review Foster
Child Fatality Information
(Dec. 2006)
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In 1989, Robert C. Fellmeth founded the Children's Advocacy
Institute (CAI) as part of the Center for Public Interest
Law at the University of San Diego School of Law. Staffed
by experienced attorneys and advocates, advised by the
CAI Council for Children, and assisted by USD law student
interns, CAI works to improve the status and well-being
of children in our society by representing their interests
and right to a safe, healthy childhood. In addition to
its academic program, which trains law students to be
effective child advocates, CAI represents children in
the state legislature, in the courts, before administrative
agencies, and through public education programs.
CAI's accomplishments and projects
include the following:
- litigation to preserve $355 million in state education
funding for high-priority preschool child care and
development programs;
- legislation to create Kids' Plates, a personalized
vehicle license plates program whose proceeds are
earmarked for child abuse prevention, child injury
prevention programs, and child care regulation;
- legislation to require children under the age
of 18 to wear a helmet when riding a bicycle;
- litigation to compel a state agency to adopt public
playground safety regulations to prevent child injury;
- legislation which characterizes child support
orders as tax liens, thereby enabling the state
Franchise Tax Board to collect them and enhance
statewide child support collection efforts;
- research and evaluation of a pilot project substituting
a single, interdisciplinary interview of a child
abuse victim for repeated interrogations by multiple
interviewers;
- coordination and leadership of the Child Advocates
Roundtable, a network of 300 statewide and regional
child policy organizations representing over twenty
issue disciplines;
- creation of the Child Advocacy Clinic, a unique
academic opportunity for law students to work on
dependency court cases under the supervision of
an attorney in the public defender's office, or
on a variety of policy projects with a CAI attorney
or other professional staff;
- publication of the California Children's Budget,
a 600-page report analyzing federal and state spending
trends on child-related programs;
- publication of the Children's Regulatory Law
Reporter and the Children's Legislative
Report Card; and
- creation and operation of the Information Clearinghouse
on Children, which works to stimulate accurate and
meaningful discussion of child-related topics by
the media and policymakers.
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