Parents accused of harming their children have a right to a court-appointed attorney in Minnesota and most of the country. But legal help is only guaranteed once allegations of abuse or neglect land in court through a formal petition submitted to a judge.
Now, a new program in the state’s largest county offers parents counsel well before this stage, when child welfare workers are still deciding whether drug use, domestic violence or mental illness threatens a child’s health and safety. This “prepetition” representation aims to steer families away from the foster care system whenever possible — a goal aligned with state and federal standards.
“We can prevent the snowball effect where we send this family down this road of unnecessary disruption and trauma,” said Hannah Burton, who coordinates free legal help for the Health Equity Legal Project at Hennepin County’s Adult Representation Services. “If parents can access legal advice and supportive services early on, it can make all the difference in empowering the family to help keep them safe, healthy, and together.”
The 1-year-old project in Hennepin County is among the newest prepetition legal representation programs popping up across the country, part of growing efforts to provide legal assistance at the earliest possible stage of a child welfare case. Similar offerings exist in the District of Columbia and 20 states from California to New York, according to data compiled by the Barton Child Law and Policy Center at Emory University.
Minnesota had a lot of catch-up to do. In 2022, it became one of the last states in the nation to grant all low-income parents the automatic right to counsel once maltreatment allegations hit the family court. Previously, the law only required that lawyers be appointed in child welfare cases when judges felt such an appointment was necessary.
The prepetition project in Hennepin County provides even earlier legal counsel. It has so far served 28 families who are mostly Black, Indigenous, or Latino. Those eligible must be pregnant or have a child younger than 5 in the home.
There are promising early signs, said Principal Attorney Rachelle Loewenson Stratton.
Several clients have been able to leave the program with no court involvement as a result of the help they received.
“The program is still new, but we’re really happy with the direction we’re going,” she said.
Since all conversations are covered by attorney-client privilege, everything discussed is considered confidential. This allows attorneys to build trust and uncover the true sources of parents’ struggles, without concerns about another call to CPS.
The seven-member Healthy Equity Legal Project team includes attorneys, social workers and “parent mentors’’ who work together on the range of hurdles these low-income families may face, from homelessness to immigration. Referrals come from nurses and doctors at prenatal clinics and hospitals, as well as local shelters and community-based organizations.
Once a parent’s name is received, either Burton or a parent mentor reaches out. Parents are connected to social services and community groups that provide housing, public benefits, transportation, therapy and basic needs like diapers and food.
“We want them to feel heard. It’s about letting them express their fears and doing my best to help from there, while making sure they know I can’t promise anything — but I’ll do everything I can.”
— Mike Williams, Parent mentor with the Health Equity Legal Project
“We want to ensure families have as much information as possible about the options available to them based on their set of circumstances,” Loewenson Stratton said.
Mike Williams, one of several mentors with the Health Equity Legal Project, helps connect parents to services. Mentors do their best to build rapport with parents, he said.
“We want them to feel heard,’’ Williams said. “It’s about letting them express their fears and doing my best to help from there, while making sure they know I can’t promise anything — but I’ll do everything I can.”
Similar efforts nationwide
For years, the federal government has offered reimbursement for state and local child welfare agencies that provide for this type of early legal representation.
In 2023, The Imprint reported on one such program in upstate New York’s Monroe County. There, the local public defender’s Early Defense Representation pilot program can serve up to 50 clients a year before a formal petition has been filed in family court — a model being replicated in other parts of the state.
In Washington state, The FIRST Clinic is a model that provided inspiration to the Minnesota lawyers. That program offers free legal counsel and support to pregnant and new moms at risk of CPS intervention due to substance use disorders.
Among the clients was Jennifer Justice. During her pregnancy in 2020, she faced losing a fourth child to foster care. But when The FIRST Clinic’s Snohomish County team connected her to an attorney, drug treatment, emergency housing and a parent ally, things turned around.
“The help just didn’t stop. It was a phone call every day,” Justice told The Imprint. “They were not going to give up until we were housed, and they were not going to let us go back to the streets with our baby.”
Future efforts in the works
In Minnesota, there are plans to expand pre-petition representation statewide. Joanna Woolman, who formerly led the Institute to Transform Child Protection at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law, is working to create a nonprofit advocacy center that will provide legal assistance for children’s relatives as well as for their parents.
“I’ve seen too many parents — and especially relatives — reach out for help, only to be met with barriers that lead to separation,” she said. “It’s traumatic for everyone involved, and I hope we can build on what we have so that we can continue changing that.”