Professor Bernard Perlmutter, co-director of the Children and Youth Law Clinic, participated last year in two Supreme Court amicus curiae briefs in the case, Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools. In the certiorari phase, he was one of two law professors asked to serve as Amici Curiae in support of the cert. petition, prepared by Georgetown Law School’s Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic. He also participated as amicus in brief prepared by Cardozo Law School faculty on behalf of 23 law professors in the merits phase of the case.
Perez addressed whether students with disabilities must exhaust the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act administrative process before filing a suit for damages under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Court issued a 9-0 favorable decision holding that the exhaustion requirement does not preclude the ADA lawsuit because IDEA does not provide the relief sought (i.e., compensatory damages).
At the Children & Youth Law Clinic, Professor Perlmutter teaches and supervises second- and third-year law students who handle cases involving abused, abandoned and neglected children and adolescents in dependency, foster care, adoption, public benefits, health care, mental health, disability, education, and immigration matters, in addition to appellate, legislative and administrative advocacy, and law reform litigation.
He has litigated numerous federal and state court impact and class action lawsuits seeking to reform Florida's foster care system. He has submitted and joined amicus curiae briefs in federal and state cases addressing the juvenile death penalty and life without parole sentences; children’s constitutional rights to counsel in dependency court proceedings; improved access to health care, educational, and therapeutic services for children in state care; LGBTQ rights to foster and adopt children; and a range of systemic issues affecting children with disabilities, immigrant children, and older foster children.
