Center on Children and the Law
The Center on Children and the Law provides a collaborative, multidisciplinary hub for research, teaching, outreach, and service on children’s issues that intersect with the law. The Center is dedicated to improving children’s overall well-being.
Our Mission
Research
Center faculty and student participants engage in interdisciplinary research projects on topics such as legal issues related to youth transition from the dependency system to adulthood for children, and the legal impact of youth decision-making capacity.
Teaching
By modeling interdisciplinary collaboration, we train a new generation of practitioners who understand the value of cross-discipline practice. Faculty members work to develop cross-discipline courses, and clinical programs administered by affiliated faculty members will provide direct training experience for future practitioners in various fields, such as law and psychology.
Outreach and Service
Center faculty and staff collaborate with other units at Penn State to provide information to the public on the detection, prevention and reporting of child abuse. To learn about detecting, preventing, and reporting child abuse, visit our collaborative website. Faculty members provide educational opportunities for students and practitioners — from physicians, to psychologists, to school administrators — for research dissemination; advocacy for informed policies and legislation on state and federal level; resource sharing (maintain clearinghouse of resources and research); and host colloquia to advance scholarly discussion and promote dialogue among faculty and students.
Impact
The lives of children intersect with the law in many ways: through education, welfare systems, health systems, mental health systems, justice systems, and more. Children’s connections to the law and legal systems raise many issues for research, teaching, and service. Too often valuable research is published but not directly conveyed to practitioners nor translated into improved outcomes for children. The Center’s research faculty members have completed extensive research on a multitude of issues that impact children’s lives and work to ensure that this research is translated into improved policies and practices on behalf of children.
Faculty Leadership
As a clinical professor, director of the Children’s Advocacy Clinic, and director of the Center on Children and the Law, Lucy Johnston-Walsh supervises law students in the legal representation of child clients in abuse and neglect court cases, as well as high conflict custody disputes. The Clinic operates as an interdisciplinary program, by partnering law students with graduate social work interns, pediatric medical residents, and child psychiatry fellows. Under her supervision, law students represent children’s legal interests in complex cases in the Court of Common Pleas as well as appellate advocacy.
In addition to direct legal representation in court proceedings, Professor Johnston-Walsh also works on broader systemic policy issues which impact youth in the foster care system. Her recent work has focused on youth aging out of the foster care system and legal issues which they face. She has worked with the Penn State Child Maltreatment Solutions Network to create the Fostering Lions Program to assist foster youth attending college. She worked with a team of advocates to get legislation passed which provides free tuition to foster youth in Pennsylvania, and also works on the legal impediments to foster youth driving.
Center-affiliated faculty in other departments
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Christian Connell, Ken Young Family Professor in Healthy Children; director, Child Maltreatment Solutions Network; MPI, Translational Center for Child Maltreatment Studies
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Lori Frasier, MD, professor, Pediatrics; program director, Child Abuse Pediatrics Fellowship
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Christina Helfrick, DSW, director for Master of Social Work Program; assistant professor
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Dr. Benjamin Levi, assistant professor of humanities, and pediatrics
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Dr. Carlomagno Panlilio, associate professor of education (EDPSY); Social Science Research Institute co-funded faculty member
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Kathryn Spearman, PhD, MSN, RN, assistant professor; Co-funded faculty with Child Maltreatment Solutions Network