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Jonathan Leiderman: Dedicated Attorney, Foster Parent, and Children's Advocate

Jonathan Leiderman: Dedicated Attorney, Parent, and Your Child’s Advocate

Jonathan’s Story

My Child’s Advocate is owned by Jonathan Leiderman, who has been practicing law in South Florida since 1994.

Early Dedication to Children

In all aspects of his life, Jonathan has shown an affinity for helping others, especially children. It dates back to when Jonathan was a teenager. He was a Counselor-In-Training at a summer camp and babysat for neighborhood kids. As an adult, Jonathan has volunteered to coach youth soccer and baseball teams.

Journey into Foster Care

In 2015, Jonathan decided he wanted to adopt a child. He started his journey by volunteering at JAFCO (Jewish Adoption and Foster Care Options) by spending time with children being cared for in its emergency shelter. In 2016, with no previous parenting experience, Jonathan began fostering children as a single dad. Initially, it was only supposed to be one child. But, when brothers (2 and 7 years old) came into the shelter in need of a foster home, Jonathan stepped up and suggested he could be that foster home.

The agency initially doubted Jonathan’s ability to care for 2 children on his own. The agency thought the 2 boys would be too much for Jonathan to handle since he had never taken care of a child on his own before. The Director asked Jonathan to spend an afternoon with the boys outside of the shelter, thinking that he would quickly admit it would be too hard to take care of them on his own. Jonathan proved the Director wrong, and the agency placed the brothers in his care until they were reunified with their birth mother a few months later.

Jonathan Steps Up

In 2017, when sisters (3 and 4 years old) came into the shelter in need of a foster home, Jonathan again stepped up. This time, since Jonathan had proven himself as a foster parent, the agency didn’t hesitate to place the kids in Jonathan’s care. The sisters remained in Jonathan’s care until they were reunified with their birth parents.

Meeting Alex

Jonathan’s journey to become an adoptive parent through fostering continued in early 2018 through Kids in Distress. A 6-year-old boy named Alex was placed in Jonathan’s care in February. After having cared for 2 sibling groups, Jonathan thought that caring for a single child would be a piece of cake. Little did he know how his life would be forever changed once Alex moved in with him.

A Life-Changing Decision

Alex thrived in Jonathan’s care for the next 8 months. Then, in October 2018, Jonathan was told by Childnet, the governmental agency that oversees foster care in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, that Alex’s birth mother gave birth to a baby girl named Tygan, and that unless he agreed to care for Tygan as well, Alex would be immediately removed from his home. Understandably, that was not a decision Jonathan was willing to make at a moment’s notice.

Facing A Difficult Choice

Jonathan didn’t appreciate being placed in that very difficult position. On the one hand, he had taken on the responsibility of providing the best care possible for Alex, and he wasn’t willing to turn his back on him. On the other hand, he had never cared for a newborn baby (let alone as a single parent who was also co-running a law firm).

Jonathan’s immediate family, who all live in the Northeast, told him that he was not physically capable of taking care of a newborn baby girl.

The Underdog's Spirit

Jonathan loves surprising people with his abilities and achievements and proving people wrong. Because Jonathan was always quiet and shy, he was often overlooked, unnoticed, underestimated, and considered an underdog. That was the case in school as a student, on the athletic field as an athlete, and in the courtroom as an attorney. Jonathan decided that for Alex’s well-being, he had to give it his best try and care for Tygan as well.

Standing Up for Alex

Jonathan was just not willing to look Alex in his eyes and tell him that he would have to move out of the house he had become so comfortable in for the sole reason that his foster dad was not willing to try to care for his baby sister. Jonathan knew he could be honest with himself and if, after giving it a try, taking care of Tygan was simply too hard and not in her best interest, he would admit it and support the kids being placed in another foster home together.

Against All Odds

Because Jonathan didn’t immediately agree to have Tygan placed in his home, Childnet asked the dependency court Judge to remove Alex from his home so that Alex and Tygan could be placed together in a group home. It would have been very easy for Jonathan to roll over and allow for that to happen, especially since Childnet and the Attorney General wanted it to happen, Alex’s birth mother and her attorney wanted it to happen, Alex’s birth father and his attorney wanted it to happen, Alex’s Guardian Ad Litem wanted it to happen, the attorney for the Guardian Ad Litem Program wanted it to happen, and even Kids in Distress (Jonathan’s own foster care agency) wanted it to happen.

However, Jonathan is not afraid to stand up for what he believes is right, especially when there is a child involved. Never one to shy away from a battle, legal or otherwise, Jonathan decided to stand up to those people and governmental agencies, and, with the help of Alex’s Attorney Ad Litem who believed Alex should remain in Jonathan’s care, fight for Alex. After hearing Jonathan’s testimony, the Judge went against the recommendations of all of the people who practiced before him on a daily basis, and ruled in Alex’s favor. In fact, the Judge not only ruled that Alex should remain in Jonathan’s care, but he also ruled that Tygan should immediately move in with Jonathan and Alex!

The Roller Coaster Journey

That was just the beginning of the roller coaster involving Alex and Tygan. A few months later, the same group of people sought to remove both kids from Jonathan’s home and to move them out of state to live with relatives. Since it is always preferred in the foster care system that kids be placed with relatives, the kids were removed from Jonathan’s home in the summer of 2019. Jonathan remained devoted to Alex and Tygan and managed to stay in touch with them.

A few weeks later, it became evident that the kids’ relatives were no longer willing to care for them, and their birth mother wanted to have them moved back to Florida, and specifically, back into Jonathan’s house. Again, with the help of Alex’s Attorney Ad Litem, Jonathan didn’t hesitate to make that happen. He knew it was the right thing to do for the kids, who had suffered one trauma after another. The kids moved back in with Jonathan at the end of the summer in 2019.

The kids were ordered to be reunified with their birth mother in December 2020. However, she not only recognized how difficult it would be for her to take care of the kids on her own as a single mother, but she respected the bond and relationship the kids had with Jonathan. The difficulty was that the foster care system is very binary – kids in care are either reunified with a birth parent or a birth parent’s rights are terminated and the kids are able to be adopted.

Reunification and Creative Solutions

While there was another option (guardianship), it involved the kids’ birth mother agreeing to give up her parental rights, and that was not the right thing to do. Jonathan, his attorney, and Alex’s attorney were tasked with coming up with a creative, out-of-the-box solution that would be in the kids’ best interests. They did just that, much to the chagrin of all of the governmental agencies and the birth mother’s attorney, who were not in favor of it.
On March 22, 2022, Jonathan was granted concurrent custody of the kids, and officially became Alex and Tygan’s dad. He has been co-parenting with their birth mother ever since!

Special Education Advocacy

Jonathan’s interest in special education law was sparked by caring for children who had, and have, a variety of special needs. None of the kids Jonathan cared for prior to 2018 received any special services or accommodations to help them succeed in school. However, after gaining some experience and confidence, when Alex came into Jonathan’s care, he made sure that Alex would receive every available service and the proper accommodations in school that he needed to succeed.
First, he asked the Court to order that a psychological educational evaluation be done. That evaluation led to a diagnosis of ADHD and ODD. The Court had assigned an attorney to represent Alex, personally, but Jonathan then successfully requested that an educational attorney also be assigned to represent Alex. Once that happened, Jonathan made sure that Alex received speech and trauma therapy, he made sure that Childnet would pay for a tutor for Alex, and he made sure that the educational attorney would request that Alex be evaluated for an IEP.

Educational Rights Champion

Jonathan attended all school meetings and witnessed for himself what his mother, a school teacher for 30 years, had observed and experienced for years – that the school was only offering the bare minimum. Jonathan naively thought that the school would be offering more than that, and had nothing but Alex’s best interests in mind. What Jonathan realized very quickly, and what was reiterated by his mother based on her extensive experience, is that the school had to take its own financial interests into account when offering services and accommodations to its students.

Expanding Legal Practice

Most parents walk away from these school meetings thinking they have no choice but to accept what the school is offering. Most parents either don’t realize that they can ask for, and insist on, more, or are afraid to rock the boat and ask. Jonathan is not most parents!

When his kids’ dependency case ended, Alex’s educational attorney was discharged. While Jonathan had acquired some knowledge about special education law, he felt like he needed to do more and learn more for Alex. He hired a non-attorney educational advocate. Jonathan has since decided to focus his law practice on being a special education attorney.

Professional Philosophy and Commitment

What this journey shows is that Jonathan is not afraid to go up against institutions and hold them accountable when such action is necessary to ensure his client’s best interests are being served. What it also shows is that Jonathan has the disposition that allows him to communicate, negotiate, and compromise with others when called for.
Jonathan has been litigating and mediating cases for 30 years. He has been vigorously advocating for his kids since they came into his life. He now looks forward to becoming Your Child’s Advocate!

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