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Childrens Advocacy  

The legal rights of children are all too frequently compromised or under-represented in today’s world.  While children are perhaps our most precious resource, their share of voice in the legal system is quite small.  When children are the victims of abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination, they need advocates to speak for them.

Our firm is dedicated to protecting and promoting children’s legal rights in domestic, educational, institutional, medical and social circumstances. 


We handle a wide range of cases related to children’s rights, including sovereign immunity litigation, foster care and adoption, personal injury, sexual and other abuses. 

Issues For Children In Florida 

As an illustration of the issues facing our society and being felt by our children, here are some facts that emerged from a recent study conducted by Florida's Children First, a state-wide children’s advocacy organization: 

  1. An estimated 43,480 children are in the custody of Florida’s Department of Children & Family Services.
  2. Florida is last among all 50 states in high school graduation rates.
  3. As of 6/15/07, over 592 children in state custody are missing.
  4. Over 1200 foster care youth leave custody each year.  They are immediately dismissed from the care and protection of the state upon turning eighteen without learning the life skills most children learn in stable homes.
  5. More than half the children in therapeutic foster care are on psychotropic medications.  Children as young as one year old are given these mind altering drugs that have not been approved for children.
  6. Children in foster care change schools two or three times a year.  This instability leads to lower grades and an inability to participate in school activities.
  7. According to the Florida Department of Children and Families, in 2003, there were 32.3 victims of maltreatment per 1,000 children in Florida.  The same study determined that 8.8 percent of the children were re-abused within six months.
  8. An estimated 20% of children and youth in foster care are developmentally disabled and may not be receiving proper services.
 

 Childrens Advocacy

Dedicated Advocates for Children’s Rights

Childrens Advocacy  

Spohrer & Dodd Attorney Helen Spohrer is a dedicated and aggressive advocate on behalf of children who have suffered physical or sexual abuse.

She has extensive knowledge of the intricacies of Florida's troubled foster care system, but her representation of children encompasses harm suffered by children both in and out of foster care. In 2005, Ms. Spohrer developed the Permanency Project for Duval County's Guardian Ad Litem Program to expedite adoptions for children in foster care. 

The Permanency Project was funded by a grant from The Florida Bar Foundation and the Florida Guardian Ad Litem Program and was designed to identify and overcome obstacles for children languishing in foster care. She was a speaker at the 2007 Summit for Children in New York, and is currently a subcommittee member for the Florida Supreme Court Steering Committee on Families and Children in Court, and a board member of the Florida Adoption Council. 

To see the results of representative Children’s Legal Advocacy cases handled by Spohrer & Dodd click here: 

For additional information on Children’s Issues and Advocacy Groups, click on any one of the links below:

Rights and Expectations for Children and Youth in Shelter or Foster Care (PDF) 

Florida Children’s First

Florida Adoption Council
 
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