As a judge overseeing child welfare cases, you play a critical role ensuring children and youth in foster care are staying on track and making progress in school. Federal law prioritizes education stability for these children and mandates coordination by … Read More
Author Archives: Susan Shaffette
Supporting Remote Family Time During the Pandemic and Beyond: The Judge’s Role
This Judge’s Action Alert highlights: trends in use of remote family time by the legal child welfare community during the pandemic; benefits and drawbacks of using remote family time approaches; keys to effective remote family time; how judges can support remote family … Read More
Seeing What’s Underneath: A Resource for Understanding Behavior and Using Language in Juvenile Court
Juvenile court can be a stressful environment— for everyone. But for court-involved youth, it can also be embarrassing, confusing, and traumatic. Youth may fail to meet adults’ expectations to be respectful and compliant or to show empathy and remorse. Youth … Read More
Getting Down to Basics: Tools to Support LGBTQ Youth in Care
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) young people are in America’s child welfare and juvenile justice systems in disproportionate numbers. Like all young people in care, they have the right to be safe and protected. All too often, however, … Read More
Utilizing Title IV-E Funds to Support High Quality Legal Representation for Children & Youth Who are in Foster Care
ACYF-CB-IM-21-06 Issued: January 14, 2021 from Children’s Bureau Memorandum from the Administration for Children and Families. The purpose of this information memorandum (IM) is to urge all state and tribal title IV-E agencies, courts, administrative offices of the courts, and … Read More
Qualifications and Standards for Attorneys Representing Children in Need of Care
Background Since its enactment in 1974, CAPTA has required appointment of a “guardian ad litem” in “every case involving an abused or neglected child which results in a judicial proceeding.” States must meet this requirement, among others, in order to … Read More
Meaningful Engagement of the Legal and Judicial System for Child Welfare Workers
This PowerPoint was developed through the Louisiana Child Welfare Comprehensive Workforce Project at LSU in cooperation with the National Resource Center on Permanency and Family Engagement. Leadership has been provided by Gary Mallon, DSW. This 2012 training has been presented … Read More
ALICE Report 2020 – A Study of Financial Hardship in Louisiana
The United Way ALICE Project provides a framework, language, and tools to measure and understand the struggles of a population called ALICE — an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. ALICE is the growing number of households in our … Read More
Louisiana Child in Need of Care (CINC) Flowchart
The attached file depicts the Louisiana Child in Need of Care (CINC) process. This flowchart was developed by the Pelican Center for Children and Families in 2017. View the flowchart as PDF document. This is set at four pages that … Read More
What Makes a QPI Site Successful?
WHAT MAKES A QPI SITE SUCCESSFUL?1. Elements of QPIa. Commitment to parenting that meets the individual developmental needs of each child in the foster care system in view of his or her unique characteristics and circumstance including his or her history of … Read More