an open letter from Legal Aid of NC regarding children services

This is a copy of the letter sent by Jason Langberg regarding support for at-risk students legal services in Wake County. All children deserve an education. Those students having problems need to have their needs accessed and met.  We strongly support their mission and encourage families to contact and utilize the POPP program.

--- On Tue, 3/13/12, Jason Langberg <JasonL@legalaidnc.org> wrote:


    From: Jason Langberg <JasonL@legalaidnc.org>
    Subject: Legal Services for Wake County Students
    Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 10:30 AM

    Dear Advocate,

    With less than three months remaining in the school year and EOGs and EOCs right around the corner, it's important that all students in Wake County have their rights protected and are in the best position possible to be successful.

    I write to remind you about the Push Out Prevention Project (POPP).  POPP is an initiative of Advocates for Children's Services.  POPP's mission is to ensure that all children in Wake County have access to a high-quality, equitable, just public education.  POPP provides two primary services for the community:

    1) We provide legal advice and representation for students from low-wealth families.  Examples of cases POPP might take are:

    - long-term suspension
    - expulsion
    - repeated short-term suspension
    - denial of enrollment
    - mistreatment by a school resource officer
    - discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, gender, or disability
    - unaddressed academic failure
    - special education

    If you know a student who could use our assistance, please either ask for permission to contact us on behalf of the family or provide the family with out contact information (919-226-0052 ext. 438 or jasonl@legalaidnc.org).  Contacting us with the family's information, and asking us to contact the family directly, is usually the most effective way of ensuring that the family receives help.  We follow up on all intakes/inquiries within 48 business hours.

    2) We provide community education in the form of publications (e.g., fact sheets, issue briefs, reports), media outreach (e.g., press releases, op-eds, interviews), trainings, and presentations.  Example of trainings and presentations include, "Know Your Rights, Remedies, and Resources" and "An Overview of the School-to-Prison Pipeline in Wake County."  If you would like to schedule a training or presentation for staff, students, or parents, please contact me.

    Attached are our flyer and brochure.  If you would like hard copies, let me know and I will bring them to you.  Please share this information with Wake County families.

    I also write to let you know about the newest addition to the POPP team, Jen Richelson.  Jen is a North Carolina transplant who moved here from Memphis, Tennessee seven years ago.  She received her B.A. in Psychology from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, dedicating hundreds of community service hours to working with early education programs in Memphis' inner city.  After working as a Hope VI Housing Project Case Manager for a year following graduation, Jen moved to North Carolina where she accepted a grant position to serve as a liasion between juvenile courts and school systems in Orange county, Chatham county, and Chapel Hill-Carrboro city school systems.  In that role, she created a sustainable model of wraparound support for juveniles in schools, ultimately securing permanent funding for position by the three school districts, the Administrative Offices of the Courts, and the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.  After serving as the Juvenile Court/School Liaison for three years, she then obtained her law degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she interned at the North Carolina Justice Center's Education and Law Project and with Disability Rights North Carolina's Education Team.   Education law and policy has been longstanding
    passion of Jen's, and she is excited to be a part of ACS' efforts to fight for the educational rights of North Carolina students.

    Thank you for all that you do for students in Wake County!

    Best,

    Jason Langberg
    Equal Justice Works Fellow/Attorney
    Advocates for Children's Services
    a statewide project of Legal Aid of NC
    Address: P.O. Box 2101, Durham, NC 27702
    Email: JasonL@LegalAidNC.org
    Office: 919-226-0051 ext. 438
    Cell: 919-344-4595
    Fax: 919-714-6552
    Web: www.legalaidnc.org/acs

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Click here for for the flyer and here for the brochure