Schools to announce partnership with legal services agency

LAKE STATION | Lake Station Community School Corp. will host a meeting at 7 p.m. today to outline a new academic-legal partnership, the Lake Station Family Stability Project, that has been created with Indiana Legal Services Inc.

The meeting will be held at Edison Junior-Senior High School, 3304 Parkside Ave., and all community members are welcome. Call (219) 962-8531 with questions regarding the meeting.

The goal of the partnership is to help resolve civil legal problems that might cause a family to uproot their children from the school where they started the academic year. Studies have shown that students who change schools during the academic year are more likely to experience difficulties in their new educational environment, including academic decline and behavioral problems.

Persons who are experiencing family legal problems relating to domestic violence and child visitation, landlord-tenant disputes, consumer problems relating to debt, collections and garnishments of wages, as well as those with problems obtaining public benefits to which they are entitled are encouraged to attend tonight's meeting and learn about free legal aid available to them.

"For the ILS legal team to have a better chance to resolve these legal problems in favor of the embattled family, we need to be involved in the legal matter as early as possible," said ILS Managing Attorney Steve Rodriguez, who is supervising the partnership with the school corporation.

While the new project will give priority to parents of Lake Station students, other area residents are also welcome to attend and talk with the ILS attorney about any non-criminal legal problem they have.

ILS is a statewide, not-for-profit organization, with a Merrillville office, that provides free legal counsel to low-income families, senior citizens and victims of domestic violence. To be eligible, a family must have an income less that 125 percent of the federal poverty level - $13,613 for an individual and $27,938 for a family of four.