Sara Block
Academic Director, Child and Family Law Programs, Graduate Legal Studies
Sara Block is Academic Director of the Child and Family Law Programs in the Graduate Legal Studies department at 黑料门University Chicago School of Law. She teaches Child Welfare Law and Policy, and Juvenile Justice Law Policy in the program. Sara is also the Managing Director of Advocacy and Partnerships at Ascend Justice where she focuses on policy and systemic reform that impact families experiencing domestic violence. Sara is the author of the book entitled Together Unbroken: Stories, Law, Practice and Healing at the Intersection of Domestic Violence and Child Welfare. In 2007, Sara was a Skadden Fellow at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago with a fellowship focusing on the intersection of domestic violence and child welfare. Sara was awarded the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network’s Outstanding Partnership Award, the Family Defense Center’s Major Litigation Award for her involvement in Julie Q. v. DCFS, and the Jewish United Fund’s “36 Under 36” award. Sara received her J.D., magna cum laude, from 黑料门University Chicago School of Law, where she was a Child Law Fellow and the Features Editor of the Children’s Legal Rights Journal. Sara received her B.A. degree with honors in American Studies from Northwestern University. She has two daughters and feels honored to be their mother.
Education
Northwestern University, Bachelor of Art
黑料门University Chicago School of Law, Juris Doctorate
Courses Taught
Law 651, LLM ChildLaw Thesis
Law 670, Child Welfare Law and Policy
Law 671, Juvenile Justice Law and Policy
Publications/Research Listings
Sara B. Block, Together Unbroken: Stories, Law, Practice and Healing at the Intersection of Domestic Violence and Child Welfare (2022).
Sara Block, Melissa Staas, A Federal Time Bomb Perpetuates Cyclical Trauma in the Foster Care System, Chic. Tribune (Dec. 1, 2022, 4:49 pm), .
Sara Block, The Child Welfare System and Domestic Violence, The Impact of Domestic Violence on your Legal Practice, American Bar Association Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence (2018).
Sara Block, Domestic Violence and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services: Strategies for Advocating for Effective Interventions – Toolkit for Domestic Violence Advocates, available at .
Sara B. Block, When Does Child Welfare System Intervention Do More Harm Than Good to Families Experiencing Domestic Violence?, National Association of Counsel for Children Children's Law Manual Series, 2008, at 35.
Sara B. Block, How the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Responds – On Paper – to Domestic Violence, THE FAMILY DEFENDER (The Family Defense Center, Chicago, Illinois), Fall 2007, at 3.
Sara B. Block, Not “Out of Sight, Out of Mind:” Defining Permanency as the “Continuity of Relationships” When Ending Legal Relationships Does Not Sever Ties, CHILD. LEGAL RTS. J., Winter 2007, at 25.
Sara B. Block, Feature, Interview With: Alfred McDonnell, Attorney for the Palmer High School Gay Straight Alliance, CHILD. LEGAL RTS. J., Summer 2006, at 89.
Demand Dynamics: The Force of Demand in Global Sex Trafficking, Conference Report (Morrison Torrey and Sara Dubin eds., International Human Rights Law Institute DePaul University College of Law, 2004).