RALEIGH, March 4, 2016 — The Lawyer on the Line pro bono program is celebrating its fifth birthday today! We are marking the milestone by thanking our 1,001 volunteers and highlighting the program’s accomplishments. Watch the video below and keep reading to learn more about this innovative pro bono partnership that is making a real difference in the lives of North Carolinians.
Lawyer on the Line is a partnership of the North Carolina Bar Association and Legal Aid of North Carolina. The project connects Legal Aid clients with pro bono volunteers who provide legal advice and brief service over the phone.
The partnership is a big win for all involved: lawyers have an easy, manageable way to do pro bono, Legal Aid lawyers have time to focus on more complex, impactful cases, and thousands of clients a year receive expert legal help at absolutely no cost.
Since its launch in 2011, Lawyer on the Line has recruited 1,001 pro bono volunteers, partnered with six N.C. law schools – Campbell, Charlotte, Duke, Elon, N.C. Central and Wake Forest – recruited nearly 400 law student volunteers, partnered with the paralegal program at Meredith College, and served over 15,000 clients. The services provided by Lawyer on the Line are worth more than $4 million on the private market.
Please help us celebrate Lawyer on the Line’s success by spreading the news. If you are an attorney interested in volunteering with Lawyer on the Line, click here to learn more and apply.
Category: Media release
Today is the fourth anniversary of the Lawyer on the Line program, a pro bono partnership of the North Carolina Bar Association and Legal Aid of North Carolina.
Every year, Lawyer on the Line connects thousands of low-income North Carolinians with volunteer advocates who provide free, over-the-phone legal help with routine cases.
Since it launched in 2011, more than 12,000 people have received free legal help through the program, thanks to the efforts of more than 1,000 volunteer attorneys, paralegals and law school students – a level of service estimated to be worth roughly $3 million based on a typical hourly rate for private attorneys.
“The growth and success of this program are phenomenal,” says David Wormald, who oversees Lawyer on the Line for Legal Aid. “Already in 2015 we’ve served nearly as many clients as we did in the first full year of the program.”
In 2014, Lawyer on the Line served nearly 4,000 clients, four times as many as were served in the first year of the program. Lawyer on the Line now boasts an active volunteer network of more than 700 members, more than double the amount from the program’s first year.
The statistics are impressive, but it’s the clients that matter.
“Just wanted to send you a message of thanks for all of your help,” wrote one client to the law student who helped her get out of a lease with a landlord who refused to fix the deplorable conditions of her home. “They have agreed to my terms and I owe it all to you!”
If you are a private attorney who wants to volunteer your time and talents to those in need, visit the Lawyer on the Line page on the North Carolina Bar Association’s website to learn more and sign up.
Here’s to many more years of service!
Category: Media release
RALEIGH · October 2, 2019 – North Carolina Lawyers Weekly has named Legal Aid NC attorneys Lesley Albritton and Yolanda Taylor as Leaders in the Law for 2019.
Based in our Greenville office, Lesley is the managing attorney of our Disaster Relief Project and the manager of our Community Economic Development Practice Group. She is responsible for making our firm a critical partner in our state’s preparation for and response to natural disasters.
Yolanda Taylor is the managing attorney of our Wilson office and one of our firm’s leading community economic development lawyers. She is the leader of our firm’s participation in efforts to fight gentrification and racial segregation in Rocky Mount.
As the managing attorney of our Disaster Relief Project, Lesley Albritton is responsible for leading one of the most dynamic, high-profile and broadly impactful practice areas in our organization—a vital and weighty responsibility that she fulfills with aplomb, passion and skill.
In our state, the question is not if there will be another natural disaster—usually a hurricane—but when. For that reason, and because disaster-related legal cases can crop up long after the event has passed, our disaster-relief work never ends. There are always open cases, and there is always the next disaster to prepare for.
It is thanks to Lesley’s persistent, prescient preparation that, when disasters do strike, Legal Aid of North Carolina is able to hit the ground running. We can immediately call upon national and state partners—including FEMA, the American Bar Association, the Red Cross, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the North Carolina Bar Association—to spin up a service infrastructure to help survivors overcome the legal barriers that stand in the way of a full and equitable recovery.
The keystone in that infrastructure is the free statewide legal hotline deployed immediately after a disaster. The hotline is part of the formal Disaster Legal Services partnership among Legal Aid NC, the NC Bar Association, the Young Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association, and FEMA. Operated by Legal Aid’s Central Intake Unit and the NC Bar, the hotline serves as a single point of contact for survivors who need legal help. Depending on their legal problem and other circumstances, callers are referred to Legal Aid or pro bono volunteers recruited by Legal Aid and the NC Bar. Learn more about the Disaster Legal Services partnership.
Key to the success of the hotline is spreading the word to survivors—no small task when all the usual forms of communication (phones, internet, mail) are likely to be out of commission. To ensure that survivors know that help is available, Lesley oversees the deployment of a team of Legal Aid staff and volunteers that conducts outreach at Red Cross shelters and embeds in FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers. Team members hand out free legal education materials, consult with survivors and direct them to critical recovery resources.
Our ability to connect quickly with survivors by immediately establishing an on-the-ground presence after a disaster is thanks in large part to Lesley’s role as Legal Aid’s point person on the North Carolina Disaster Recovery Task Force, a multi-agency group convened by the Emergency Management division of the N.C. Department of Public Safety. Legal Aid’s role on the task force is, in partnership with other agencies and organizations, to implement the housing section of the Disaster Recovery Framework, the state’s all-encompassing plan for responding to natural disasters. Legal Aid is responsible for handling cases involving public housing admissions and evictions, and terminations of housing subsidies, like Section 8 housing vouchers.
Lesley’s participation on the Task Force puts us right in the middle of the preparations for and the response to natural disasters, establishing Legal Aid as a critical partner in the recovery effort and paving our way to accessing survivors immediately after the event.
Our commitment to meeting survivors where they are, rather than making them come to us, doesn’t stop after the shelters and recovery centers close down. In early 2019, months after Florence made landfall, Lesley worked with the North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center to put on a well-attended and successful series of free FEMA Appeals Clinics at community colleges throughout the southeastern part of the state. Survivors showed up in droves to hear Lesley give a legal-education presentation and to meet one-on-one with pro bono volunteers recruited by Legal Aid and the Pro bono Resource Center. Learn more about the FEMA Appeals Clinics.
At Legal Aid, the result of all this outreach to survivors is, of course, casework. All the calls to our hotline and connections with survivors at shelters and clinics translates into hundreds of cases for clients who need help with disaster benefits, insurance claims, landlord-tenant issues, consumer scams and more. Overseeing all of this legal work is, of course, Lesley.
It’s one of her most important—and fulfilling—duties, she says. She provides legal support to our staff attorneys, including an elite corps of disaster-relief specialists funded by the Golden Leaf Foundation, pro bono volunteers and paralegals. By reviewing work, making suggestions, and providing nudges in the right direction, Leslie sets up other attorneys for success.
“It’s hard to overstate how this has become my favorite part of this job,” she says. “It makes me feel so good when our attorneys are successful. The confidence boost they get from a big win makes them feel great, but more importantly, it makes them more eager to take on their next case and get an even bigger win for their next client.”
At Legal Aid, our commitment to our clients extends far beyond their legal needs. Following Hurricane Florence, Lesley employed a team of social workers to develop plans for outreach to the public and community partners to develop a network for case referrals and to build an exhaustive list of resources in each impacted county.
Moreover, Lesley does all this while also handling her own disaster-related caseload.
Yolanda Taylor, the managing attorney of our Wilson office, is a true leader in our organization and in the communities she serves.
As the head of our Wilson office, Yolanda oversees the provision of critical legal services to low-income and vulnerable residents in Edgecombe, Greene, Lenoir, Nash, Wayne, and Wilson counties.
With a small staff of 13, including 9 attorneys, three paralegals, and one community economic development outreach coordinator, our Wilson office bears the weighty responsibility of being the sole source of free civil legal services for the 116,000 low-income residents of its service area.
With so many people who need help and with so few people to provide it, Yolanda, as a leader of our community economic development work, has pioneered the practice of community lawyering to leverage her office’s limited resources to meet the needs of its clients.
As defined by the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, “community lawyering is a process through which advocates contribute their legal knowledge and skills to support initiatives that are identified by the community and enhance the community’s power.”
The use of community lawyering allows a relatively small group of advocates to have a disproportionately positive impact in a marginalized community by serving as force multipliers for efforts that have already galvanized the community.
It’s a bottom-up approach that ensures that those who are best able to identify and articulate a community’s needs—the members of the community in question—remain in the leadership roles that will best enable them to meet those needs. Community lawyers, essentially, are just there to lend a helping hand—though a critically important and powerful one.
Yolanda has put the philosophy of community lawyering to successful practical use in her efforts to support the Steering Committee of Community Academy, Inc., a nonprofit that advocates for low-income people in the city of Rocky Mount.
The group was founded in 2015 following the release of the Twin Counties Visioning and Strategic Plan, a report issued as part of a strategic planning process led by representatives from the City of Rocky Mount and Edgecombe and Nash counties.
One result of the process was the identification of 14 low-income, racially segregated communities in Rocky Mount that were rapidly gentrifying. Members of those communities, facing the prospect of being priced out of their homes and exiled from their neighborhoods, wanted a voice in the community development process. They wanted those in power to hear their concerns—and to address them.
Yolanda helped the Steering Committee raise its voice on behalf of the community members and ensure that they were speaking to the right people. She and her staff helped them develop talking points and taught them how to advocate at city council meetings. She educated them on the federal Fair Housing Act and the powerful protections it provides to struggling communities. “I armed them with the law,” she says.
Her efforts have been incredibly successful. The Steering Committee now holds monthly meetings with city management, where the two groups work together to develop strategies that will ensure the equitable growth of Rocky Mount, which includes the perseveration and expansion of affordable housing, food equity, access to transportation, and the increased health and vibrancy of the community.
Thanks to this new partnership, the city council has voted unanimously to address the community’s gentrification concerns and have incorporated community-led strategies to mitigate the effects of gentrification into its fair housing plan. The city also implemented a workforce housing advisory council that will address the fair housing needs of residents, affordable housing and the gentrification concerns in affected neighborhoods. The city is now partnering with the community to shape equitable land use policies.
Yolanda’s successful use of community lawyering to make a broad impact within communities of need has made her a recognized expert on the subject within our organization and throughout the broader public-interest legal community.
She has led trainings on community lawyering and community economic development for Legal Aid advocates, and at conferences hosted by the N.C. Equal Access to Justice Commission, the N.C. Equal Justice Alliance, the N.C. Justice Center, the Racial Justice Institute of the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, the Center for Budget and Tax Accountability and more.
Category: Media release
RALEIGH, April 20, 2016 — Legal Aid of North Carolina raised 38 pounds of food per employee during this year’s Legal Feeding Frenzy, making us the winner in the inaugural Public Interest category.
Participants collected nearly 300,000 pounds of food during this year’s contest, which ran from March 1-31. Attorney General Roy Cooper, honorary chair of the contest, will recognize winners at an awards ceremony April 26 in Cary.
Sympathy for the Deli, Ponysaurus Brewing Co. hold fundraiser for Legal Aid of North Carolina
July 12, 2017 – Legal Aid of North Carolina got a lot of love on Sunday.
Thanks to the generosity of Jonathan Richelson, owner of the Sympathy for the Deli food truck, and the good people at Ponysaurus Brewing Co., Legal Aid received a wealth of much-needed financial and moral support at the Eat for Equality, Drink for Justice fundraiser in Durham on July 9.
The event featured a whole-hog BBQ buffet prepared from scratch by Sympathy for the Deli, which specializes in hand-curing, roasting and smoking locally sourced, sustainable meats. Richelson himself served as the pitmaster, tending to the hot smoker throughout the nearly 90-degree day. The feast was complemented by the range of creative craft brews offered by Ponysaurus, which hosted the event at their indoor-outdoor taproom in downtown Durham.
“Thank you to Jonathan and his team, everyone at Ponysaurus, and everyone who came out to show their support,” George Hausen, executive director of Legal Aid of North Carolina, said. “After losing $1.4 million in funding from the General Assembly and facing even deeper cuts at the federal level, it’s invigorating to know there is still a deep well of support for our important mission.”
It was news of this funding crisis that prompted Richelson to sponsor the fundraiser in the first place. He heard about it from his sister, Jennifer Story, the head of Legal Aid’s Advocates for Children’s Services project, which defends the rights of students in North Carolina public schools.
“She told me what was happening, and I just had to do something,” Richelson said. “Legal Aid is so important. Where else are poor people supposed to go?” His food truck is often stationed at Ponysaurus, so he asked the management about hosting a fundraiser. They readily agreed.
“It’s always nice to see a great turnout for a great cause,” Nick Hawthorne-Johnson, co-owner of Ponysaurus Brewing Co., said. “We are absolutely thrilled that it was a success.”
It was so successful, in fact, that plans are already underway to make it an annual event. Stay tuned!
To learn more about supporting Legal Aid of North Carolina, visit legalaidnc.org/donate.
Category: Media release
Kilpatrick Townsend, McGuireWoods, Robinson Bradshaw and Womble Carlyle recognized for extraordinary commitments to Legal Aid clients
RALEIGH, Oct. 31, 2016 – Legal Aid of North Carolina honored four law firms for their extraordinary pro bono service to Legal Aid clients at an awards ceremony Wednesday in Greensboro. The ceremony was held as part of the 2016 North Carolina Legal Services Conference, which brought together civil legal aid lawyers from across the state for two days of networking and training.
The four law firms honored by Legal Aid of North Carolina – Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP; McGuireWoods LLP; Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A.; and Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, LLP – have each provided over 1,200 hours of pro bono service to Legal Aid clients since 2011.
One of the most popular ways for attorneys to volunteer with Legal Aid is through the Lawyer on the Line program, which connects Legal Aid clients to private attorneys who provide free legal help over the phone. Volunteers serve up to four clients a month, receive training in core areas of poverty law, are covered by malpractice insurance and can rely on mentoring support from seasoned Legal Aid attorneys. The North Carolina Bar Association and Legal Aid launched the program to serve thousands more Legal Aid clients a year while providing an easy, straightforward way for private attorneys to do pro bono.
Lawyers with Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice, which is based in Winston-Salem and has offices in Charlotte, Greensboro, Greenville, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park and Wilmington, have given over 1,750 hours of free service to Legal Aid clients since 2011. George Hausen, executive director of Legal Aid, said that Womble Carlyle “sets the gold standard of law firm pro bono partnership,” noting that the firm has played an integral role in Legal Aid’s governance since its founding and annually provides significant financial support – all in addition to the firm’s pro bono contributions. “We are truly grateful to count Womble Carlyle among our supporters,” Hausen said.
Kilpatrick Townsend, with offices in Charlotte, Raleigh and Winston-Salem, has donated more than 1,375 hours to Legal Aid clients since 2011. Kilpatrick attorneys, in partnership with Legal Aid’s education justice project, Advocates for Children’s Services, and the Wake Forest School of Law, have dedicated significant time to representing at-risk children in cases involving special education and school discipline. Jennifer Story, head of Advocates for Children’s Services, described the firm as a “shining example of the positive impact that a private firm can have by doing pro bono work,” and said that their zealous advocacy “has had a hugely positive impact for some of our state’s most vulnerable children.”
McGuireWoods, with offices in Charlotte, Raleigh and Wilmington, has performed more than 1,355 hours of pro bono service to Legal Aid clients since 2011. The firm has partnered with The Child’s Advocate, a Legal Aid project that represents children in high-conflict custody cases in Wake County, to train private attorneys to take these cases pro bono. Monica Webb, a McGuireWoods attorney and Legal Aid board member, is among the firm’s attorneys who accept these cases. Suzanne Chester, head of The Child’s Advocate, said that “the generosity of firms like McGuireWoods is crucial to giving a voice to children trapped in high-conflict custody cases and helping to mitigate the psychological damage these children suffer as a result.” McGuireWoods is also the recipient of the North Carolina Bar Association’s 2016 Pro Bono Award for a large law firm. The firm was nominated by Legal Aid’s Charlotte office and Legal Services of Southern Piedmont.
Robinson Bradshaw, with offices in Chapel Hill and Charlotte, has given over 1,250 hours of service to Legal Aid clients since 2011, and “has been a major, continuous pro bono partner with Legal Aid of North Carolina since our inception in 2002,” said Ted Fillette, assistant director of Legal Aid and head of its Charlotte office. Fillette described co-counseling a case with Robinson Bradshaw in 2015 before North Carolina’s Supreme Court on behalf of a family threatened with eviction from subsidized housing. “It was a case presenting issues of statewide and national importance. We were successful in protecting that family from homelessness and establishing a precedent recognized as the leading decision in this area of federal law.”
Pictures from the awards ceremony are available on Legal Aid’s Facebook page at facebook.com/LegalAidNC.
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Legal Aid of North Carolina is a statewide, nonprofit law firm that provides free legal services in civil matters to low-income people in order to ensure equal access to justice and to remove legal barriers to economic opportunity. For legal help, apply online or call toll-free 1-866-219-LANC (5262). Learn more at legalaidnc.org and follow us on Facebookand Twitter.
Media Contact
Sean Driscoll, Director of Public Relations, 919-856-2132, seand@legalaidnc.org
RALEIGH – Legal Aid of North Carolina, a civil legal aid organization that provides free legal help to low-income people, will broadcast a free, interactive, do-it-yourself divorce clinic at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 19, 2019, to locations in 14 cities across the state.
The clinics are designed to empower participants to file for a simple divorce without full-service legal representation. A simple divorce does not involve contested child custody, equitable distribution of assets or other complex legal issues. Legal Aid attorneys provide participants with all the necessary legal forms and provide basic instructions for filling out and filing them. The clinics also include question-and-answer sessions.
Legal Aid attorneys conduct the clinics from a central location in the Triangle and broadcast them to locations across the state using interactive webcast software. The clinics are held on the third Thursday of every month, although there will not be one in December.
Every clinic is completely free but registration is required because space is limited. Please call the toll-free Legal Aid Helpline at 1-866-219-5262 to register.
Here is the list of locations for the Nov. 19 clinic. Locations may differ for future clinics.
Durham
Legal Aid of North Carolina
201 W. Main St., Suite 400
Morganton
Legal Aid of North Carolina
211 E. Union St.
Fayetteville
Legal Aid of North Carolina
327 Dick St., Suite 103
New Bern
Legal Aid of North Carolina
607 Broad St.
Goldsboro
Legal Aid of North Carolina
102-A William St.
Pembroke
Legal Aid of North Carolina
101 E. 2nd St.
Greensboro
Legal Aid of North Carolina
122 N. Elm St., Suite 700
Pittsboro
Legal Aid of North Carolina
959 East St., Suites A & B
Greenville
Legal Aid of North Carolina
301 S. Evans St., Suite 200
Sanford
Central Carolina Community College
1105 Kelly Dr.
Wilkinson Hall Room 221
Henderson
Infinite Possibilities
425 S. Chestnut St.
Wilson
Legal Aid of North Carolina
102-A South Williams St.
Littleton
Oak Grove Baptist Church
10614 US Highway 158
Winston-Salem
Legal Aid of North Carolina
102 W. Third St., Suite 460
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Contact: Sean Driscoll, Director of Public Relations, 919-856-2132,seand@legalaidnc.org
Category: Media release
CARY, April 27, 2016 – Attorney General Roy Cooper honored Legal Aid of North Carolina yesterday at the awards ceremony for the 2016 Legal Feeding Frenzy, the legal community’s annual fund- and food-raising drive to benefit the North Carolina Association of Feeding America Food Banks.
Robin Ames (pictured center), an attorney in our Ahoskie office, received the award on Legal Aid’s behalf from Attorney General Cooper, honorary chair of the drive. Legal Aid raised 38 pounds of food per employee and came in first in the inaugural Public Interest category.
Overall, nearly 300,000 pounds of food were collected during this year’s Feeding Frenzy, which ran from March 1-31. The annual drive is run by the North Carolina Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division. Bryan Norris (pictured left), an attorney with Sharpless & Stavola, P.A. in Greensboro, is this year’s chair of the division’s Feeding Frenzy committee.
RALEIGH – January 31, 2016, is the final deadline for North Carolinians to enroll in coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace during the third Affordable Care Act open-enrollment period. With just six days left, the clock is ticking and North Carolinians should act now to make sure they have time to shop around, consider their options, and enroll in the plan that best fits their needs and budget.
The North Carolina Navigator Consortium and Enroll America are urging North Carolinians to check out Affordable Care plans, which cover what they need and meet their budgets so they can have peace of mind knowing that in an event of medical emergencies they would be covered.
“The Affordable Care Act insurance continues to help many North Carolinians,” said Jennifer Simmons, North Carolina Navigator Consortium Director. “We have talked to consumers who have undergone life-saving surgeries using their coverage. The marketplace plans are affordable and meet consumers’ budgets. We encourage uninsured North Carolinians to check out their options before the January 31 deadline so they can get covered.”
“So far, more than 569,000 North Carolinians have signed up for coverage during this open enrollment period – but there are still many who stand to benefit and need to take action before January 31,” said Get Covered America North Carolina State Director Sorien Schmidt. “Last year, we saw an unprecedented surge of interest leading up to the final deadline, and we expect to see the same this year as we approach the end of the month. That’s why we are encouraging people to start the process now to make sure there’s plenty of time from them to find the best plan for their family.”
To help North Carolinians learn about their options, there is free, in-person enrollment help available in communities across the state. Consumers can sit down face-to-face with unbiased local experts who can answer questions and help them make the best coverage decision for them and their families. They can also help people change plans if they are already insured through the Affordable Care Act and want to explore the new options available to them this year.
North Carolinians can find someone near them by calling 1-855-733-3711 or using the Get Covered Connector tool at getcoveredamerica.org/connector.
During this open enrollment period, there are new plans and new prices available on the Health Insurance Marketplace, so North Carolinians should shop the options available to them. All Marketplace health plans are required to cover the basics – from preventive care, emergency services, prescriptions, and more. And quality protection comes at an affordable price for most North Carolinians, thanks to the financial assistance available to lower the cost of plans. In fact nearly 9 in 10 of the North Carolinians who have signed up so far are receiving financial help.
Those who don’t have health insurance in 2016 may face a fine of $695 or 2.5% of their income – whichever is greater. And that’s on top of having to pay out of pocket for routine medical care and unexpected emergencies. North Carolinians shouldn’t delay and risk paying the fine and high medical bills when they can have quality, affordable health insurance that will cover the essentials and protect them from the unexpected.
Enroll America is the nation’s leading health care enrollment coalition. An independent nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, Enroll America works with more than 6,700 partners in all 50 states to create cutting-edge tools, analyze data, inform policy, and share best practices in service of its mission: maximizing the number of Americans who enroll in and retain health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
Media Contact
Sean Driscoll, Director of Public Relations, Legal Aid of North Carolina, 919-856-2132, seand@legalaidnc.org
The project described was supported by Funding Opportunity number CA-NAV-15-001 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The contents provided are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of HHS or any of its agencies.
Category: Media release
RALEIGH · March 7, 2019 – The Wake County Public School System (“WCPSS”) and Legal Aid of North Carolina have entered into an agreement addressing the concerns raised by Legal Aid of NC in a systemic state complaint filed with the Department of Public Instruction in 2018. The focus of the complaint was on services provided and procedures followed in regard to students with disabilities who were also impacted by either mental health diagnoses or behavioral difficulties while at school.
While many of the strategies and systems outlined in the Agreement were already underway by the district, this agreement also outlines many processes and services for students with special needs that are the direct result of the collaboration of the Wake County Public School System and Legal Aid of North Carolina. Moving forward, it is the hope and desire of both parties to continue to look for opportunities that may foster collaboration for the benefit and support of special needs students.
The agreement, finalized on February 13, 2019, outlines a number of ways that the district will work to improve services for students with mental health disabilities, including:
providing training for staff on effective behavior interventions, including trauma-informed procedures,
implementing a suspension monitoring system,
updating service protocols for students with disabilities who are suspended for more than ten days or are assigned to an alternative program,
conducting an internal audit to increase compliance with required procedures for students with mental health/behavioral disabilities, and
providing individual remedies for students similarly situated to the complainants, including those students who missed 20 or more school days due to suspensions or transportation delays.
“The steps WCPSS is taking through the Agreement will help ensure that students with mental health or behavior disabilities are getting the education they deserve and that the law requires,” said Cari Carson, staff attorney for Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Advocates for Children’s Services (“ACS”).
“We are pleased to reach this agreement with Legal Aid of North Carolina on completing the strategies and systems outlined in the settlement, some of which were already underway,” said Karen Hamilton, assistant superintendent for Special Education Services with the Wake County Public School System. “We look forward to future opportunities to support our students with special needs.”
The complaint was filed on behalf of seven individual students, and alleged that WCPSS had violated the rights of those students and other similarly situated students with mental health disabilities by:
suspending students without holding the legally required manifestation determination review meetings,
failing to timely provide students with transportation to alternative placements,
holding Individualized Education Program meetings without the proper team members present,
failing to provide educational services after the 11th cumulative day of suspension, as required by law
placing students in segregated settings without appropriate behavioral interventions in place that may keep them in less-restrictive environments.
Both ACS and WCPSS believe students with mental health disabilities can experience school success with the right supports in place.
“In fact, special education law requires that all students with disabilities be offered an appropriate education in the least restrictive environment,” Carson said. “But too often, students with mental health disabilities are segregated away from their non-disabled peers or are not making academic progress in any setting.”
Advocates for Children’s Services will hold a free legal education clinic, “Know Your Rights in Public Schools,” this month to empower parents to enforce their students’ rights to effective behavior and mental health supports in public schools. The clinic will be held March 20 at Legal Aid’s Raleigh office at 224 S. Dawson St. and will be broadcast live to a dozen other locations across the state. Parents can learn more and register to attend here.
About Legal Aid of North Carolina and Advocates for Children’s Services
Legal Aid of North Carolina is a statewide, nonprofit law firm that provides free legal services in civil matters to low-income people in order to ensure equal access to justice and remove legal barriers to economic opportunity. Advocates for Children’s Services (ACS) is a statewide project of Legal Aid of North Carolina that serves children from low-wealth communities in education cases. ACS fights for education justice and an end to the school push out crisis in North Carolina through legal advocacy, community education, and collaboration. For more information, visit www.legalaidnc.org and www.legalaidnc.org/acs
About WCPSS Special Education Services
The Special Education Services Department of the Wake County Public School System provides special education and related services to more than 20,000 children based on the federal mandates of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the regulations of the North Carolina Public School Law. If you have questions regarding your child’s IEP and services, contact the Office of Family and Community Connections in Special Education Services at (919) 431-7334.
Media contacts
Sean Driscoll, Director of Public Relations, Legal Aid of North Carolina, 919-856-2132, seand@legalaidnc.org
Tim Simmons, Chief of Communications, Wake County Public Schools, 919-533-7095, tsimmons@wcpss.net
