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Special Projects

DCFS EDUCATION PROJECT

Since 1994, PSLS has maintained a special project to deliver legal services to children between the ages of 3 and 21 who are wards of DCFS, and who need legal services to secure and protect their rights to special education and related services.  Funding for this project comes from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

All children referred to PSLS under this project are wards of DCFS, meaning that DCFS is their court-appointed guardian.  These children are placed by DCFS in the home of a family member or a foster parent. Depending on the age and capabilities of the child, our clients are either the child or the foster parent or family member.  The opposing party is usually the local school district responsible for the child(ren). 

Referrals under the project are made to PSLS either by a local DCFS office, by a delegate agency to which DCFS has assigned casework responsibility, or by a foster parent.  Typically, they raise concerns about the child’s educational environment or placement.  In some cases, the issue involves a school’s failure to identify a child as eligible for special education.  In other cases, the issue involves the appropriateness of the special education and related services which the child may or may not be receiving, or the child’s placement.  Sometimes, the school proposes a change in placement through the expulsion process.   In all cases, the goal is to assure that the child receives a free, appropriate public education.

A wide array of legal services is available.   Project activities include:  1) participation and advocacy at Multidisciplinary Conferences (MDC meetings); 2) participation and advocacy at meetings to write the student’s Individual Educational Plan (IEP meetings); 3) representation at expulsion and other disciplinary hearings, and finding alternatives to expulsion; 4) review of school records and evaluations; 5) setting up independent evaluations and re-evaluations;  6) sending letters and other forms of negotiation with school personnel; 7) representation in dispute proceedings, such as  administrative due process hearings, complaints to the ISBE, or mediation; 8) representation in the state or federal courts.

In 1999, the project expanded to include referrals from DCFS of cases in which their wards are subject to expulsion by their local school districts.   It is not a pre-requisite for acceptance of an expulsion case that the child be eligible for or receiving special education services.

HIV/AIDS LEGAL SERVICES PROJECT           

Since April, 1995, PSLS has maintained a project to deliver legal assistance at no cost to persons who are HIV+ or who have AIDS.  The financial eligibility criteria to qualify for Prairie State Legal Services help have been expanded for this project.  Eligible clients must document their medical serostatus, and be a resident in one of the PSLS counties where project services are available.  At the present time, the project serves all PSLS counties, except Kankakee, Iroquois and Livingston.  Project funding comes from Parts A and B of the federal Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act.   Part A funds are administered by the Chicago Department of Public Health for an 8-county extended metropolitan area around Chicago (the “collar counties”).   Funds for the remaining counties are provided by several different regional HIV consortia.  

The project addresses client needs for assistance in civil legal matters such as: (1) housing and landlord tenant; (2) health care and insurance issues, including Medicare and Medicaid;  (3) future planning and advance directives, such as living wills and powers of attorney; (4) public benefits such as TANF, food stamps, and unemployment insurance; (5) disability benefits, including Social Security and SSI; (6) family law matters; (7) employment; (8) education; (9) consumer and debt collection problems; (10) guardianships, and (11) discrimination and other civil rights issues.   A client’s legal problem handled under the project may be related specifically to his or her HIV status.   However, in most situations, that is not necessarily the case.  The client’s rights to confidentiality are respected at all times. 

Broad-based outreach is conducted about the availability of services. The intake process is flexible and responsive, accommodating disabilities and health conditions.  As with many PSLS projects, we make accommodations for linguistic and cultural diversity.  Clients are kept informed and work together with staff to determine the objective of the representation, to make decisions regarding the case, and to achieve goals in a timely fashion.  Staff are trained and knowledgeable in the law and have HIV/AIDS awareness.  Services are provided in a sensitive, compassionate, nonjudgmental and comprehensible manner.  Our project attorneys are part of a continuum of care for persons with HIV/AIDS in their communities.   Information, referral, networking and training regularly are exchanged with human service providers working with this population, and with HIV support groups.   We are linked in all of these ways with the HIV/AIDS community, including with the various systems of case management. 

VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION AND HOME SERVICES PROJECT           

This project provides legal services and representation for persons with disabilities who are having problems appropriately receiving or who have been denied certain services from the Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS), a division within the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS).   Specifically, the project serves persons who are seeking either:

  1. Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services to obtain a specific employment goal,  provided by DHS, by Centers for Independent Living, rehabilitation facilities or by Projects with Industry; or
  2. Home Services to prevent the unnecessary institutionalization of individuals who may be satisfactorily maintained at home, under the DRS Home Services Program (HSP).

All clients eligible for legal services under this project are collectively referred to as “DORS customers”.   This project serves every county in the Prairie State service area.

Funding for this project comes from a contract with the Client Assistance Program (CAP), a semi-autonomous division within DRS, which is legally mandated by the federal Rehabilitation Act to provide independent advocacy services for DRS customers.   The legal services available from this project allow CAP to appropriately meet this legal mandate.  It allows DRS customers an alternative to CAP advocates (non-attorneys) for consultation and representation.  Finally, it provides CAP personnel and advocates a resource for legal consultation.   For DRS customers, the normal financial eligibility criteria do not apply in the determination of eligibility for PSLS services.   PSLS accepts all referrals from CAP, except to the extent there is a conflict of interest or other ethical problem. 

The scope of work under the project includes: (1) providing legal information, counsel and advice; (2) advocacy and negotiation services; (3) representation at Hearing Appeals; and (4) litigation in the state or federal courts.   We also provide program advice to CAP on systemic problems and issues that adversely affect clients. 

FAIR HOUSING EDUCATION AND OUTREACH  INITIATIVES PROGRAM

With a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), this project provides broad education and outreach activities with respect to rights under the Fair Housing Act and how to enforce those rights.  Funding from HUD is year to year.  We have built on a highly successful EOI project initiated in 2003, and funded again by HUD in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009.  Each year, PSLS attorneys, with the involvement of  4 or 5 new or renewed partner organizations, engage in numerous education/outreach activities related to housing discrimination prohibited by the Fair Housing Act and related state laws, covering rental, sales and financing of housing.  The project seeks to: (a) increase consumers’ capacity to challenge unlawful housing discrimination by providing resources, knowledge and skills, thereby increasing the number of complaints filed with HUD from our 36 county service area; and (b) provide information on various related issues such as renter’s rights, affordable housing, predatory lending,  foreclosure prevention, financial literacy, and others.   Education and outreach activities take many forms, including presentations to specific community based agencies; workshops for the public or for targeted groups such as people with disabilities, the homeless, victims of domestic violence, seniors, and many others; training of law students; development and distribution of pamphlets and other curricular materials; public service announcements, and information through both the print, air, and electronic media, including newspapers, radio, and the internet.

ELDER LAW PROJECT           

Prairie State receives special funding from Area Agencies on Aging through Title III of the Older Americans Act to provide legal services to persons age 60 and older.  Senior citizens in that age group are served regardless of income or assets.  However, project services are focused to serve the needs of senior citizens who are in the greatest social and economic need.   Typically, cases in the project surround such issues as: (1) health care and insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid; (2) Social Security; (3) elder abuse and financial exploitation; (4) housing issues; (5) nursing home issues; and (6) legal assistance to preserve the personal autonomy of seniors.  Project attorneys assist seniors in preparing Powers of Attorney or living wills and counsel couples when one spouse requires nursing home or home health care.  As resources permit, a range of other services are offered.  The project is available throughout the Prairie State service area.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS’ CIVIL LEGAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

Since 1999, with funding from the U.S. Department of Justice under the Violence Against Women Act, we have been able to expand direct legal assistance to domestic violence victims on a range of civil law issues impacting on victims’ abilities to provide a safe, secure, and stable living environment for themselves and their children.   Currently, we administer this project in most of the counties we serve.  Services for victims include: obtaining emergency orders of protection or plenary orders of protection, or both; obtaining some other protective order; providing advice or brief services on a family matter; obtaining a divorce; obtaining, preserving or increasing child support; obtaining a public benefit; assisting in matters relating to housing.   This funding has allowed us to serve over 500 additional victims each year. 

Under this project, we also have collaborated with Northern Illinois University (NIU) College of Law to establish a for-credit experience for third year law students that includes clinical experience and classroom instruction on law and domestic violence issues.   Students provide advocacy services to victims of domestic violence and gain practical experience representing victims of abuse in Order of Protection hearings and other related matters under the supervision of PSLS attorneys.  The law school class and corresponding clinical program started in January, 2000, and has continued through the present.   In the classroom component, topics focused on the substantive and procedural law in Illinois relating to domestic violence and divorce.  In the clinical component, students assist victims of domestic violence with obtaining emergency and plenary order of protection and with issues such as divorce, custody, support, visitation, property and housing.  Since the inception of the project, on-site legal assistance has been provided to victims at the Kane County courthouse and at three domestic violence program shelters.  

TAX LAW PROJECT

Since February, 2009, PSLS has operated a Low-income Tax Clinic which provides free legal representation for clients having tax disputes with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  Clients residing anywhere in the 36- county PSLS service area can apply to the Clinic for representation from our experienced tax attorney by calling 855-TAX-PSLS (855-829-7757).  Examples of services available from the Clinic include: placing clients in currently not-collectible status, assisting clients prepare offers in compromise, representing clients in tax court cases to challenge a proposed deficiency assessment, advising clients about available collection alternatives, responding to IRS notices, contesting classifications and assessments, challenging fraudulently filed returns, advising and assisting clients prepare requests for innocent spouse relief, requesting Collection Due Process or equivalent hearings to propose a collection alternative, and working to help retrieve tax refunds that were unlawfully withheld.

Prairie State Legal Services has been recognized by the United States Tax Court as a nonacademic clinical program that can represent pro-se litigants who have requested Chicago or Peoria, Illinois, as their place of trial.  Prior to Prairie State’s recognition, there were no recognized programs that served pro-se Tax Court litigants in Peoria. 

SERVICES TO THE HOMELESS  (limited to Lake and DuPage Counties)

These projects are funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help persons who are homeless to overcome obstacles to their ability to obtain housing. Extensive outreach to the homeless is an important part of this project. In addition, project attorneys tend to handle a wider range of legal problems for these clients, which are directed at a long-term resolution of the client’s housing problems.