We have been working all year with partners, youth, allies, and advocates to advance bills that align with our vision for community: We want investments in our youth and their communities.

Each case I work on is as unique as the young person who we are representing, and that means our legal advocacy must be innovative and creative. 

SB 5046 provides funding for The Office of Public Defense to provide an attorney for some individuals who are incarcerated and have legal claims regarding their conviction and sentencing that deserve a chance to be heard by the court.

Intersectionality, as I have come to understand it, describes the cross sections of one’s identities – how multiple identities interact and form emergent realities.

Many TeamChild staff were deeply saddened and angered to read the recent article describing one student’s experience with racist bullying and harassment in Washington state, as reported by Crosscut. 

In King County, the legal team has been partnering with Teen Feed which runs drop in services throughout the week at Roots Young Adult Shelter in the University District, to offer legal clinics twice a month.

We were delighted to gather in person with supporters in April for TeamChild’s 2023 Town Hall. Thanks to your support, we extended our impact through GiveBig May 2-3 and raised a total of $58,000.

Youth detention centers and jails are not homes.  Everyone knows this. Everyone agrees. Yet TeamChild attorneys work with clients regularly to try to find a safe place for them to live when it is time for them to be released from detention. 

There will always be requests from youth for safe places to live. They don’t know about legal options. At TeamChild, attorneys help them understand their options.

TeamChild worked hard to support ESHB 1394, which was signed into law on April 20, 2023 and supports a developmentally appropriate response to juvenile sexual offending behavior.

TeamChild Staff and several Board members gathered last month at Dumas Bay Center for our first in-person retreat since 2019.

The pandemic exacerbated pre-existing inequities in education but it also created new education rights challenges for Black, Indigenous and Latino youth and youth with disabilities in Washington’s schools.

TeamChild is working to support some of the funding proposals this session, and watching carefully how our state legislature allocates resources.

This Women’s History Month, and on the 60th anniversary of the legal decision Gideon v. Wainwright, TeamChild Policy Coordinator Julian Cooper shares a letter of appreciation to, and an ask for continued accountability from, our staff.

HB 1479 was overwhelming seeks to increase the training and technical support provided to school staff to learn safe and effective interventions to prevent and deescalate student behavior. 

With so much change in our society we are finding that more and more harm is being done to our young people and young people are hurting—from the increase of juvenile incarceration, to youth suicide rates, a mental health crisis, and youth homelessness.

What happens after a student is suspended from school and serves their full suspension? This was a question in a case TeamChild litigated up through the Court of Appeals, out of our Yakima office.

This year we have continued to adapt our work to the effects of the pandemic, which continues to deepen the inequities that cause harm to our young clients and to young people in Washington state.

My name is Vy, and at the Pierce County office, I do everything non-legal to support our youth clients. For example, a young person is going through the process of becoming emancipated