NOTE: This blog was written by Carl Pratt, one of LCYC’s 2025 Summer Fellows.
My first summer internship was in Juvenile Prosecution, where I spent my days combing through bodycam footage, reading police reports on teen mischief, and watching court proceedings. The most jarring instance of this work involved working with a child who had amassed over 70 police contacts. As I read through the reports, each dating further into the past, I realized that the contact between police and child had begun when the child was an infant, with domestic violence disputes between their parents. Then, the police contacts segued into neglect and child welfare related occurrences—and then juvenile criminal contacts. My heart broke for this child as I came to understand that their life had had constant contact with the legal system, and how the system was built to respond, not to provide support or care.
As I entered my second year of law school, I joined the UW’s Tribal Court Public Defense Clinic, where I assisted my professor in representing the parents involved in Muckleshoot Child and Family Services (MCFS), the tribal equivalent of the Department of Children Youth and Families. There, I finally began interacting with clients of all types, ranging from issues of poverty to substance use to domestic violence. This type of representation was challenging, since I had not yet reckoned with my internal biases about child dependencies and foster care. This clinic helped me see the clients in front of me as real, authentic, complex individuals, and by the end, I truly did care about the reunification of the families whose cases I followed. However, I still never interacted directly with those at the heart of the case—the children themselves.
As I sought out a summer internship for this year, LCYC’s focus on the children heavily appealed to me. Since my legal education began, I have gravitated toward laws involving children, which has turned to frustration at the lack of voice these children have in court. In numerous cases where the children are the most affected, even in situations where they were older teenagers, the children never get to say their piece. LCYC changes that. I finally began interacting with the people who the statutes are meant to protect.
The first client I met during my summer at LCYC was nothing like I had expected. From the reports I read, I had braced myself to meet a child with aggressive and chaotic behaviors. I was surprised instead to be asked by them to play tag, and even more surprised when they asked me not to go outside the property boundary, since “that’s against the rules!” This kid knew boundaries and rules, and even calmly enforced them! This interaction made me realize how difficult it is to encapsulate an entire human being in written reports, and the importance of actually including the people most affected by decisions in the decision-making process. Without LCYC, all the court would hear about this child would be reports made by parents and the few glimpses DCYF workers receive when they visit a child. The court would have no idea what the child themselves wanted, what their hopes are, and what they need.
My second client interaction made me emotional for their similarities with my baby brother. The same hair, the same height and athleticism. When we would ask the child what their preferences were on a given issue, they responded often with “whatever is easiest for everyone.” This child had placed his own wellbeing on the backburner for so long that instinctually he put the good of the whole family over his individual needs. Our conversation centered on the idea that they were our boss, and that our job was to advocate for whatever they wanted, reiterating that what mattered was not what was easiest, but whatever he needed. Helping give a voice to this child energized me, and I followed this case for the rest of the summer.
The third client I met showed me the goal that we always are working towards. This child had been returned home to their biological parent, and the whole family beamed with excitement throughout the duration of our visit. We sat and stacked Legos while we heard overwhelmingly positive reports about how life had been since reunification. By the end of the meeting, the parents were showing us their shelf of completed Lego models—a clear passion shared by the family.
LCYC focuses on the children, centering the person who is most impacted by any decision a court makes during a dependency proceeding. I was privileged and humbled to meet these children, who both shattered my expectations and confirmed that in the dependency world, I want to stand behind these clients.