Four Emory Law Juvenile Defender Clinic students worked on the amicus brief Waldman filed in November 2020 in a case that led to a June 1, 2022, Georgia Supreme Court decision that gives juveniles the right to an insanity defense.
The Barton Juvenile Defender Clinic and partners prevailed in a 2019 court case that sought to provide special education services to disabled youths in the DeKalb County Jail, one of the largest in the country.
The negotiated settlement comes almost a year and a half after the school system was sued by a 17-year-old who was diagnosed mental illness, the teen’s mother, and a 19-year-old with learning disabilities. Both teenagers were being denied the special education they were entitled to under federal law, the lawsuit stated.
The school to prison pipeline, that was recently halted during the COVID-19 pandemic, is especially pronounced for Black and Latinx students and students with disabilities and in schools serving impoverished communities, explained Sarah Vinson, M.D., and Randee Waldman, J.D., in a commentary published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.
A City of South Fulton councilwoman has proposed a controversial law that could send parents to jail and fine them for their children 's crimes. Paul Howard, the Fulton County district attorney, said in a statement that he thought the proposal could be unconstitutional. "It's hurting the wrong person," said Randee Waldman, director of Emory Law's Barton Juvenile Defender Clinic. "They're not standing next to their kids while they're committing crimes."
Randee J. Waldman, director of Emory Law's Barton Juvenile Defender Clinic, was recognized with the Champion of Justice Award.
Claire Sherburne 16L has been named the first recipient of the Aaron L. Buchsbaum Fellowship, which was established in 2014 by the late Buchsbaum and his wife, Esther.
Research shows that juveniles waive their Miranda rights at extremely high rates--several studies say roughly 90 percent, according to a recent ABA Journal article. They may not understand what they're giving up. Randee Waldman helps Emory Law students represent juveniles via the Barton Child Law and Policy Center. In Georgia, officers often read a Miranda warning written in the first person that says, "I have a right to remain silent." Children find that confusing, Waldman says, and courts have asked the police to do better.
Georgia has one of the highest school suspension rates in the country. But it is dropping. To shrink the number further, some state officials are pushing a program that has helped reduce discipline problems nationwide. Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, or PBIS, is a program now in 400 Georgia schools. Randee Waldman, director of the Barton Juvenile Defender Clinic at Emory Law School, commented on how it works.
Say you were convicted of shoplifting a couple of times when you were 13. Fifty years later, you would hope that wouldn't still be on your record. But in some states, like Georgia, it probably is. And anyone can access it. In Georgia, you can't get your criminal record expunged. You can only make a request to have it sealed. "Georgia could do better in protecting our kids," says Randee Waldman, director of the Barton juvenile Defender Clinic.
The Fulton County (Atlanta) Daily Report featured a winning decision in the case of an Emory Law Juvenile Defender Clinic client.
Georgia inmates who faced the death penalty before age 18 will be resentenced.
Students from the Emory Law Barton Child Law and Policy Center Appeal for Youth Clinic drafted the appeal and argued the case.
Emory Law students worked on the passage of a landmark overhaul of Georgia juvenile code.
Melissa Carter, director of the Barton Child Law and Policy Center, discusses a proposal to overhaul Georgia¿s juvenile justice system that has passed the House and is expected to be before the Senate this week.
A special state council today will recommend repairs for a juvenile justice system that spends $91,000 a year for each bed in its state detention centers. Council members point to the enormous expense of incarcerating young offenders in a state ¿youth development campus,¿ or YDC, while producing poor results, as evidence that the system isn¿t working.
The Governor¿s Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform is recommending Georgia establish a two tiered system for felonies committed by juveniles younger than 17. Kirsten Widner with the Barton Child Law and Policy Center at Emory University says the new system would lock up violent offenders, and send non-violent offenders to community treatment.