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UMKC Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Mental Health, Youth Programming

UMKC Law Child & Family Services Clinic

The UMKC Child and Family Services Clinic is a free legal service for parents, relatives and custodians needing help to obtain court order to provide permanent homes for children who are victims of abuse or neglect.

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UMKC Law Child & Family Services Clinic

When a child is found to be abused or neglected and are removed from the offending parent, courts would prefer to place a child with a caregiver the child knows. This could be the other parent, a grandparent or other relative, or even a family friend who is willing to provide the child a safe and stable home. If a child cannot be reunited with their parent, usually the best option for that child would be to remain with this caregiver. However the adults who are providing these children the security of a home and care often have no legal right to have custody of the child. So the children, and these caregivers, remain under the jurisdiction of the court until someone can help these caregivers to obtain the legal orders they need. While specific stories of the clinic's clients cannot be shared due to confidentiality, there are some stories that are common. The most common caregiver that the clinic assists is actually a child's father. For example, because of a mother's illness, addiction, or other unresolved problems, a court may determine that reuniting the child with the mother is not in the child's best interests. Dad, however, may be ready, willing, and able to care for the child, but may not have custody -- either because he has never had a paternity determination or because, in a prior custody action, mother was given custody. Students in the clinic work with Dad to establish paternity and obtain legal custody. Grandparents are often the family members who step in to care for a child when the parents are unfit, unwilling, or unable to do so. In fact, nearly 20,000 children in Missouri are living with a grandparent with no parents present in the home. Without a legal guardianship to transfer authority to these grandparents, they cannot enroll their grandchildren in school, consent to their medical care, or otherwise exercise the authority they need to properly care for their grandchildren. About one quarter of the clinic's cases involve establishing guardianship for grandparents or other relatives. Cases come to the clinic from the family court, hospitals, non-profit agencies, and sometimes from alumni of the program who know the help the clinic can provide. Family law issues are the largest unmet legal need in Missouri and the UMKC Child & Family Services Clinic helps to fill that gap.

Impact

In the past fifteen years, the clinic has provided the legal services to secure safe and permanent homes for over 1,000 children. The clinic students ordinarily represent those adults seeking to give these children a home: for example, a family members seeking permanent guardianship, a father seeking paternity, or an adoptive family. In some instances, the clinic students may act as guardians ad litem on behalf of children. Last year, over 5,600 children in Missouri were found to be abused or neglected or at sufficient risk of abuse or neglect to merit services from the state. In Jackson County, Missouri alone last year, nearly 900 children were removed from their homes. There are insufficient state funds to provide legal services for these children and their care givers. Without legal assistance, the legal status of these children, many of whom are in foster care, can often remain unsettled for years. The impact on these children lasts a lifetime. Each year students provide an average of almost 2000 hours of services to these children and their caregivers through the Child & Family Services Clinic. The clinic has trained over 150 students. Today, many of those graduates are the leaders of the family law bench and bar and continue to give back to the community representing children and families.
Child Development Civil Rights Community Counseling Health

Contact

Professor Mary Kay O'Malley
  omalleymk@umkc.edu
  816-235-6336

Partners

Children's Division Missouri Department of Social Services
  AskCD@dss.mo.gov
  573-522-8024
  https://dss.mo.gov/cd/
16th Judicial Circuit of Jackson County Family and Juvenile Court
  Div6.cir16@courts.mo.gov
  816-435-4711
  https://www.16thcircuit.org/family-court
Cornerstones of Care
  844-824-8200
  https://cornerstonesofcare.org/
Hope House Domestic Violence Shelter
  jhembree@hopehouse.net
  816-461-4188
  http://www.hopehouse.net/

Location

  Jackson County, MO, USA

More Information

https://law.umkc.edu/academics/emphasis-areas/child-and-family-law/

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