National Center for Youth Law (NCYL)

Background

The National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) is a youth advocacy organization. NCYL was founded as the Youth Law Center in 1971 and became the National Center for Youth Law in 1978. ⁶

NCYL sues child welfare agencies, school systems, juvenile justice departments, and the federal government on behalf of youth, ⁷ with a focus on “Black youth and youth of color, LGBTQ youth, disabled youth, immigrant youth, and youth in child welfare and juvenile justice systems.” ⁸ It advocates policy change in areas such as education, foster care, health, youth justice, and immigration. ⁹ It creates partnerships and initiatives to address its focus areas, claiming that today’s systems are racist and biased, and do not support Black, brown, Indigenous, LGBT, and low-income youth. ¹⁰

Advocacy and Litigation

The National Center for Youth Law advocates at the federal, state, and local levels. It advocates for the removal of law enforcement from school campuses, claiming it creates a “school-to-prison pipeline,” especially among Black, Brown, and Native students. ¹¹ It advocates for alternatives to incarceration and probation for youth, ⁹ and it advocates the release of unaccompanied illegal immigrant youth, placing them in family settings and providing legal representation. ¹²

NCYL issued a statement claiming that the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Mahmoud v. Taylor which allows parents to opt their children out of a part of an elementary-school curriculum that depicted LGBT characters was an attack on LGBT people. ¹³ NCYL has advocated for numerous policies that support LGBT youth. ¹⁴

NCYL advocates against the broader issue of parental rights, claiming that right-wing advocates leverage this as a “way to advance regressive… social policies.” ¹⁵

In partnership with the University of California, Berkeley and the Juvenile Law Center, NCYL advocated for Debt Free Justice which eliminates juvenile court fees and fines for youth and their families and erases existing debt. The advocacy initiative was funded by Arnold Ventures and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. ¹⁶

In May 2025, NCYL, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates sued the United States Department of Education, demanding a stop to the Department’s “unlawful rollback of civil rights protections for students experiencing discrimination in schools.” The lawsuit claims that the Department is not investigating student complaints of discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, sex, or disability. ¹⁷

Partnerships and Initiatives

The Education Civil Rights Alliance (ECRA) fights against the “anti-critical race theory movement” and “anti-equity policies that contribute to hostile school environments for students, especially students of color and LGBTQ youth.” ¹⁸ ECRA members include the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and The Advocacy Institute. ¹⁹

The Reproductive Health Equity Project (RHEP) supports “bodily autonomy and healthy sexual development of youth in foster care.” ²⁰ Partner organizations include Public Counsel, Planned Parenthood, and Black Women for Wellness. ²¹ RHEP was previously funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. ²⁰

Teen Health Law is a project of NCYL. It publishes a compendium of laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia on the laws that impact healthcare for adolescents. It focuses on consent and confidentiality concerning abortion, contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, mental health care, substance abuse, and gender-transition procedures. ^{22 23}

In 2025, NCYL is launching the Public Education Defense Fund to address complaints that the U.S. Department of Education under the second Trump Administration is not pursuing civil rights complaints in education. ²⁴

Funding

In 2023, the National Center for Youth Law reported $13,795,088 in revenues. It received $4,275,711 in government grants. ²⁵

Donors to the NCYL include Equal Justice America; the NEA Foundation; the Sierra Health Foundation Center for Health Program Management; Equal Justice Works; the Liberty Hill Foundation; the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco; the Jewish Community Federation of Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties; the Marin Community Foundation; the San Francisco Foundation; ² Open Society Foundations; ³ Ford Foundation; ⁴ and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. ⁵

In 2023, the NCYL made grants to several organizations including the Alliance for Children’s Rights, the Children’s Law Center of California, Community Initiatives, Community Partners, the National Network of State Teachers of the Year, the Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley chapters of Planned Parenthood, Public Counsel, Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, and the Youth Justice Coalition. ²⁶

Leadership

Shakti Belway was named executive director of the National Center for Youth Law in 2023. She joined the organization in 2020. She has previously worked at the Mississippi Center for Justice and the left-of-center activist group Southern Poverty Law Center. ⁷ Belway earned a bachelor’s degree in ethics, politics, and economics from Yale University and a law degree from Stanford Law School. ²⁷

Sophie Fanelli is the board president. She is the president of the left-leaning grantmaking Stuart Foundation. Previously she was a director at the Institute for Democracy, Education and Access at UCLA and worked at the ACLU of Southern California where she focused on several left-of-center issues including LGBT rights, immigrant rights, and housing for the homeless. She is on the boards of Grantmakers for Education, the Philanthropic Collaborative for Education, and Immigration Equality, and on the advisory board of the Center for Effective Philanthropy. Fanelli was previously on the board of the GSA Network, which describes itself as “trans and queer youth uniting for racial and gender justice.” ^{28 29}