A to Z on law and your kids

     by Nancy McCarthy
      Staff Writer

You are on the phone with a client when your secretary interrupts to say your child's school is calling. Your child didn't show up for class.

You receive a bill in the mail for clean-up costs associated with property damage your son inflicted on his school.

Your daughter's diary is lying on her bed. Do you have the right to read her innermost thoughts?

Can you serve your 17-year-old a glass of wine at a birthday party in your home?

Is it against the law to belong to a street gang?

Questions like these -- involving children and the law -- arise every day, and often neither the child nor the parents know the answers. Now, they can get help in a booklet published by the State Bar -- "Kids and the Law: An A-to-Z Guide for Parents."

79-page guide

The 79-page publication offers relevant, accessible, easy-to-understand information on a wide range of laws and legal issues involving children.

It includes nuts-and-bolts information on current and changing laws, various practical examples, a glossary and cross-references to appropriate statutes and code sections.

"We want to put this guide into the hands of parents across the state," said bar president Tom Stolpman. "One of our key goals is to encourage more parents to talk with their youngsters about the law."

"Kids and the Law" was written by Thomas Nazario, a professor at the University of San Francisco law school and a nationally recognized advocate and expert on the rights and problems of children.

It received the endorsement of the California PTA, which is helping the bar distribute the booklet through its 4,000 chapters. The bar and the PTA also developed a plan of how best to use the book and inform parents about laws regarding children.

The plan suggests distributing the booklet to school attendance review boards for use in interviews with truants and parents; holding parent information nights; giving the booklet to local law enforcement school resource officers and juvenile court judges; and running a "Kids and the Law" column in local PTA newsletters.

"This is exactly the kind of information that all parents with school-aged children should have, but they often do not know where to find it and do not seek it out unless a particular problem or crisis arises," says Carol Ruley, president of the California PTA. "It's a fantastic thumbnail sketch of what parents need to know about the law."

Working with the PTA

"We also see attorneys and local bars as being a critical component in getting this booklet into the hands of school districts and to parents," said Jaclyn K. Reinhardt, the bar's senior executive for communications. "We have developed some resources to help them spread the word and work in collaboration with the PTA and other interested organizations."

Because the vast majority of the state's 6 million school-age children do not break the law, familiarity with children and the law is on a "need to know" basis, Ruley said. When youngsters do find themselves in trouble, parents often do not know where to turn.

"We think it's important for parents to be informed," Ruley said. "That's part of our job in the PTA."

The booklet's creation was triggered by a bar-commissioned survey of 600 California youngsters between the ages of 10 and 14 conducted early last year by Charlton Research Company.

The survey suggested that while most children in their preteen and early teen years would turn to their parents for help with questions about what is, and is not, against the law, they actually learn about the law from school and television.

The survey also found widespread uncertainty about some laws and the consequences for breaking them.

Law Day

The booklet was officially launched on Law Day, an annual effort every May 1 to educate the public about the law and the legal system. Primary focus of the day is on making young people aware of their legal rights and responsibilities. Law Day was established by presidential proclamation by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958.

For more information about the Kids and the Law campaign, call the bar's office of communications, 415/561-8357.