February 2016
LAAC In Action
About LAAC

Salena Copeland: 
Executive Director 
If  you have any questions regarding the LAAC Sections, LAAC advocacy work with the state legislature, or the Campaign for Justice, please contact her at [email protected]. 

Lorin Kline: 
Program Attorney 
Please contact her at [email protected] if you have any questions regarding LAAC programs.
 
Tim Ng:
Program Associate
Please contact him at [email protected] if you have any questions regarding LawHelpCA.org.
 
Denise Watt:
Senior Program Coordinator
Please contact her at  [email protected] 
if you have any questions about our programs or LAAC membership benefits.
Join Our Mailing List
LAAC Member Story

DREDF logo
Last year, the National Council on Disability (NCD) released Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students with Disabilities, a report researched and written by Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF).

Art by Arlene Mayerson _ 2014
The report argues that the increased likelihood of receiving an out-of-school suspension among students with disabilities, especially students of color, resulted from a lack of proactive individualized behavioral supports and inadequate implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and other disability rights laws that mandate services to help struggling students with disabilities.

Read more about  DREDF's collaborative and intersectional work to break the School-to-Prison Pipeline for students with disabilities.
Disability Rights Webinar Series - Join Us!

Looking to gain a better understanding of disability rights?

The course, co-sponsored by DREDF and Western Center,  is a complete curriculum, divided across a series of webinar presentations.  The first sessions will offer foundational disability rights information of relevance to a wide range of substantive practice areas. Subsequent sessions will focus on disability rights issues arising within particular practice contexts.

All sessions held noon to 1 pm unless otherwise noted.

Civil Rights Definition of "Disability"
Monday, Feb. 22 (First session!)
Preparing advocates to compare and contrast different "disability" definitions, to assist with disability rights issue-spotting in a variety of practice contexts.
Presented by Linda Kilb, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund
1 Hour MCLE credit -  Learn more and register!

Friday, March 18
Your obligations as a lawyer, legal mandates and defenses as to reasonable accommodations, policy modifications, communication access and physical access requirements vis-à-vis our clients.
1 Hour MCLE Recognition and Elimination of Bias credit -  Learn more and register!

Equal Access Fund

LAAC's first advocacy priority is to increase funding for legal aid, and right now we are taking on the Equal Access Fund.

Last session, Senator Wieckowski  drafted a letter to Governor Brown and LAAC helped garner sign-ons from nearly 30 legislators.   This session, LAAC has worked closely with new State Bar President David Pasternak .  

Due to all of the vocal advocacy from our community, both the Senate and Assembly have upcoming hearings to discuss a potential increase. Learn more on  LAAC's website . 
Other Legislative Advocacy

LAAC supports  SB 308 (Wieckowski) which would provide protections for low income individuals declaring bankruptcy. 

Every year LAAC also monitors any active bills that will have an impact on legal aid statewide or that will affect your programs and clients.  Does your program sponsor or follow any bills you find important? Let   LAAC   know what legislation is important to your program so that we can keep the community informed!
E mail Lorin Kline at  [email protected] .
CA Legal Aid Technology Group



The CA Legal Aid Technology Group  is designed so that staff at California Legal Aid organizations can communicate with staff at other organizations who are responsible for technology upkeep or decision-making regarding best practices, referrals for developers or other experts, troubleshooting problems, collaboration on regional or statewide projects, emerging technologies and issues, and more. Join the Group!
  Legal Aid Press Clips
Newspaper icon
Did you read a news story or other article about the impact of legal aid in California? Send or share it with us on Facebook and Twitter! Read our collection of press clips about CA legal aid.
Dan Bradley Fellowship

If you work at a rural organization, or on rural projects, your summer students can apply for the Dan Bradley Fellowship.  The deadline to apply is Friday, April 1, 2016.