Reforming the child welfare system through civil rights impact litigation.
David Shalleck-Klein is an attorney and advocate for transforming the child welfare system. He became passionate about the area of family law after observing Brooklyn Family Court proceedings while studying in the Family Defense Clinic at New York University School of Law. David was shocked to see that many of the allegations of parental mistreatment were rooted in poverty-driven conditions like not enough food in the home, housing not up to code, or wearing the same clothes to school. In many of these cases, the government’s “solution” was separating families and placing children in foster care rather than supporting them through services and advocacy—essentially criminalizing families for being poor. In the Juvenile Defender Clinic, David then represented many of these same children, who had been in government custody through foster care, when the government labeled them “predators” and attempted to put them in a different form of government custody—jail. For his work in these clinics, David was awarded the Christian Jarecki ’98 Memorial Prize for outstanding work and commitment in a law clinic. After law school, David joined The Bronx Defenders as an attorney in the Family Defense and Criminal Defense practices.
Statistics show a clear picture of discrimination and uneven enforcement in the child welfare system nationwide. There are nearly half a million kids in government custody through foster care in the US, most of whom are Black. Families below the poverty line are 22 times more likely to be involved in the child welfare system than families with incomes slightly above. If you are a Black child in the United States, you have a 53% chance of experiencing a child protective services (CPS) investigation before you reach 18. Throughout their interaction with CPS agencies, children and families are often subjected to traumatizing and coercive practices. Assumptions about race, poverty, gender, and disability often result in extreme surveillance and unnecessary family separation.
Up to now, there was no organization singularly focused on bringing affirmative and strategic litigation on behalf of families to challenge and remedy the abuses of this system. David established the Family Justice Law Center (FJLC) to be this organization. Launched in the Urban Justice Center’s Social Justice Accelerator program, FJLC is preparing to spin-off and become an independent non-profit. FJLC focuses on issues such as Fourth Amendment violations (illegal searches and seizures), the over surveillance of survivors of domestic violence, devastating delays in family-separation hearings, non-consensual hospital testing, and many other key issues that are at the intersection of racial justice, criminal justice, juvenile justice, reproductive justice, poverty justice, gender justice, disability justice, and other civil rights causes.
FJLC has just filed its first landmark class action suit against the New York City Administration of Children’s Services on behalf of families impacted by the system, as detailed in this New York Times article, and a few months ago filed a system-changing strategic appeal on behalf of survivors of domestic violence targeted by the child welfare system when subjected to partner abuse themselves, as written about in this New York Daily News article. David is starting in New York to establish a proof of concept, with the goal of scaling nationally to develop tailored approaches in other jurisdictions that will intersect to catalyze broader systems change.
In 2022, David was one of the winners of the David Prize, an award recognizing extraordinary New Yorkers who are working to create change in their communities, which assisted him in beginning FJLC’s efforts in New York. UP’s award will allow David to lay the groundwork for FJLC’s national expansion, including identifying optimal locales for replication, hiring and developing an exceptional staff, and building relationships with local partners and supporters. If successful, FJLC will improve the child welfare system to better protect and serve children and their families, while providing relief to those who have been negatively impacted by ineffective and devastating practices. Learn more about David Shalleck-Klein and the Family Justice Law Center here.