I was very happy when Miranda decided to join EBCLC as a clinic student in Fall 2019 after her exceptional work in the Name and Gender Change Workshop as a 1L. One of the most memorable experiences for Miranda was her representation of a client in a hearing challenging Alameda County’s assessment of our young client’s In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS). IHSS is a Medicaid program that pays for a chore-provider to assist a person living with disabilities to prevent them from being institutionalized. Often times the chore provider is a family member who cannot work otherwise because of the care their loved one needs. In our experience, counties often assess fewer hours than required under the law and will completely deny hours to young children. Counties often allege that the care for the child is a parental responsibility even though the law requires that they assess the individual child’s disability. Miranda’s young client lives with a rare condition and had missed many milestones. Miranda drafted a lengthy brief which included both procedural arguments about our client’s right to the hearing as well as substantive arguments about how many hours our client should be granted. Throughout the process, Miranda was in close communication with our young client’s mother, often assisting her with other legal issues, and sometimes playing Baby Shark with our young client so that the mother could feed the meter. In the end, the judge ordered the County to assess our client IHSS hours, and our client received tens of thousands of dollars in back pay and a living wage.

– Daniel Faessler, Health & Welfare Clinic