By Maria Iacobo
The work of two USC Gould School of Law students has contributed to dramatically improving the rights of families involved with California’s foster care system. A final judgment issued recently by a California Superior Court reversed a California Department of Social Services (DSS) policy that prevented relative caregivers, found to be ineligible to serve as foster parents to family members, from appealing that decision to an independent judge.
The two students, Meaghan Field ’10 and Michael Thompson ’09, worked on the case, Harris, et al. v. California Department of Social Services, while enrolled in the Access to Justice Practicum, a course in which students advocate for nonprofit organization clients. Field continued to work on the case even after graduating and taking the bar exam last summer.
 |
| Prof. Clare Pastore |
The students investigated the legal claims and drafted the complaint on behalf of the Alliance for Children’s Rights.
“This case stems from an issue in federal and state law which says that, before you place a child in a home and begin paying foster care benefits, you need to make sure the home is safe and that no one living in the home has a disqualifying record,” says Prof. Clare Pastore, who designed the practicum and has a long career as a public interest lawyer.
Children are often placed in homes on an emergency basis, and relatives are the first to be contacted to be caregivers; social workers conduct home inspections at a later date. When county social workers do not approve a home, there was no process to appeal that decision.
“The irony is that while they won’t approve the home for the children, they don’t remove the children,” Pastore says. “Instead they simply don’t pay the family the foster care payments necessary for many families to take in the children. What that showed us was that, many times, these were technical issues that there could have been a waiver or a way around them. In fact, this was also a money-saving move.”
That the state would allow children to stay in a home that social workers would not approve for foster care was an indicator to Pastore that there was a problem with the system.
“Research shows, and public policy embraces, the fact that relatives’ homes are the best places for kids,” Pastore says. “We’re not saying to take the kids away; we’re saying that there needs to be a review of the system.”
Another apparent inconsistency in DSS policy is that non-relatives whose application to become foster parents is not approved have the right to appeal the decision. The recent court decision requires the state to extend the right to an independent hearing to all applicants denied home approval.
 |
| Meaghan Field '10 |
Field says she was “completely overwhelmed” when Pastore emailed her with the decision.
"I almost started crying,” Field says. “I was in court at the time so that would have been really awkward. But, it was really thrilling.”
Field met the Harris family after working on the case for more than a year. She says she was moved by the struggle the Harrises had gone through to keep their grandchildren.
“I know how much this [decision] meant to them and what it will mean to future families,” she says.
Field took the Access to Justice Practicum as a 2L and says she enjoyed working on the case so much that she “didn’t want to give it up.”
Working as a summer associate for O’Melveny & Myers after her second year of law school, Field remained actively involved with the case as the firm transitioned into the case as co-counsel after the Alliance and USC Law students identified the disparities within the state’s policies. She continued working on the case during her last year in law school as Pastore’s research assistant.
Established in 2008, the practicum has partnered with a variety of Los Angeles area organizations and provided real-world legal experiences for students.
“The practicum was the practice of law in a semester capsule,” says Field, who now practices entertainment litigation with Kendall Brill Klieger.
Previous Article
