Struggling families now have a legal ally in the Hickman Mills School District when facing eviction, foreclosure, domestic violence or other dangers that turn children’s lives inside-out.

This month, Justice in the Schools lawyer Garrett Christensen and legal intern Tamika Ross set up shop in the southeast Kansas City district and are already beginning to help families get aid that can stabilize lives, keep children in class and better prepare them to learn.

“I’m really excited to work with families to keep students in the district,” Christensen said, “because we know if we can keep them in Hickman Mills schools they can thrive.”

Justice in Schools — a joint project by Legal Aid of Western Missouri, the Hickman Mills School District and the Local Investment Commission (LINC) — is expanding on the work that has already served more than 100 families in the Kansas City Public Schools since 2018. That effort is supported by SchoolSmart Kansas City.

Families need help to easing life pressures that, in the Hickman Mills School District, sees nearly one-in-four students changing schools every year.

“The heart of our focus is to help with the student mobility crisis,” project director Cori Smith said, looking back at the project’s work in 2019. “A lot of that relies on eviction defense.”

The project has a dedicated attorney to lead the work in Hickman Mills.

Christensen of Kansas City is an alum of the Teach for America program and taught for three years at Pitcher Elementary School in the Kansas City Public Schools after his graduation from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL

“I loved it truly,” Christensen said of his time in the classroom. “I saw through teaching the need for other types of advocacy with the challenges schools are facing.”

He earned a masters degree in education from the University of Missouri-St. Louis while teaching, and then went to the University of Minnesota Law School.

His focus on serving children and families led him to work at the Children’s Law Center of Minnesota in St. Paul and the Child Advocacy and Juvenile Justice Clinic in Minneapolis.

Then came the opportunity to bring his work home to Kansas City. Now he and Ross are immersed in the work at the school district’s new resource center, 9000 Old Santa Fe Road, where the legal clinic is part of a host of services — including a laundry room, children’s library and enrollment center — that Superintendent Yolanda Cargile hopes will help stabilize families’ lives.

“This building and Dr. Cargile’s vision for it is something I’m excited about,” Christensen said. “This is a rare opportunity here.”

Ross, of Raytown, is a first-year student at the Washburn University School of Law in Topeka.

“Student mobility I know has been a crisis and it has impacted student performance,” Ross said. “If we can come in and provide our little piece of legal services to establish a more safe home front for the children I know they can thrive in Hickman Mills.”

How Justice in the Schools can help

In addition to eviction defense and domestic violence protection, Justice in the Schools can also help families in several other areas.

They include issues with subsidized housing, foreclosure, guardianships, healthcare, food stamps, car titles, loans, bankruptcy, tax law and unemployment benefits.

The Justice in the Schools project cannot help landlords or commercial and business clients. The project does not help with criminal cases.

LINC is providing an online form to make a request for legal services that is available here.

Or the project can be reached by phone at 816-410-8432.