Kavya Parthiban joined DREDF as a Skadden Fellow/Staff Attorney* in the Fall 2022. Kavya focuses on supporting parents with disabilities whose families are impacted by the child welfare/foster care system.
Kavya’s interest in disability justice began while working with youth in the foster care system who were at risk/labeled as commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC). While working with unhoused youth and foster youth for a few years in the Bay Area, she found that the dependency system did not properly accommodate and discriminated against many families with disabilities leading to instability and unfair treatment. Her experience seeing foster care consistently disregard and mistreat youth and parents with disabilities while keeping these families separated despite their attempts to stay together inspired her to pursue law to provide comprehensive support to low-income disabled families. Kavya went to UCLA School of Law, where she earned her J.D. with a specialization in Public Interest and Critical Race Studies in 2022. She comes to DREDF excited to better support families at risk of/ currently involved with the Bay Area dependency system to advocate against family separation using disability nondiscrimination laws.
*Kavya is barred in California
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