Legal professionals often collaborate with the child welfare system and are integral to achieving permanency for teens. To provide quality representation and ensure the case plan meets the young person’s needs, legal professionals must engage youth. The resources below provide … Read More
Attorney
Native American Heritage Month – ICWA
During Native American Heritage Month, we hope you will join us in celebrating ICWA’s legacy of keeping Native children safe, healthy, and connected to their families, communities, and cultures by learning more about allyship, active efforts, and building effective tribal-state … Read More
MCLE: Deadlines Approaching for Earning, Reporting CLE Credits
The deadlines are quickly approaching for earning and reporting continuing legal education credits for the year. Preliminary transcripts will be mailed to the membership on or before Dec. 1. Don’t miss the opportunity to take courses online this year. You … Read More
Court Process and Legal Rights Guide For Foster Caregivers
The guide is hosted on the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services website and was created in 2021. This guide is to be used to learn more about Child in Need of Care (“CINC”) cases. It is for foster … Read More
Child Welfare Hearing Quality Research: What Legal Professionals Should Know
As a legal professional who participates in child welfare court hearings, you can benefit from understanding how the quality of the hearing affects the case process and outcomes. Having this information can help you prepare for and participate in hearings. … Read More
How Legal Professionals Can Use the Compendium of Measures and Data Sources: Understanding Judicial Decision-Making and Hearing Quality in Child Welfare
This two-page overview<https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/how-legal-professionals-can-use-compendium-measures-and-data-sources-understanding> highlights a new resource legal professionals can use in child welfare court improvement work: the “Compendium of Measures and Data Sources: Understanding Judicial Decision-Making and Hearing Quality in Child Welfare” (Compendium)<https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/compendium-measures-and-data-sources-understanding-judicial-decision-making-and-hearing>. It explains the Compendium and its … Read More
The Art of Listening Effectively
Ten important ideas to keep in mind when representing or advocating for your child and youth clients In order to build strong lawyer-client relationships with children and youth, listening is foundational and essential. To help strengthen our listening skills, here … Read More
Five Resources for Lawyers Representing Transition Aged Youth
Some tips and resources to help you prepare your client to age out of the child welfare system. By Cathy Krebs – January 2021 Lawyers who represent transition-aged youth (ages 16–24) have unique challenges to ensure their clients are prepared … Read More
Trauma Caused by Separation of Children from Parents
A Tool to Help Lawyers Information is up to date as of January, 2020. Children are seriously harmed when they are separated from their parents. There has been quite a bit of research that proves that harm and outlines the specific … Read More
Tips & Tools for Providing High-Quality Legal Representation to Children and Parents in Child Welfare Proceedings: Out-of-Court Advocacy
Out-of-court advocacy is critical in every child welfare legal proceeding. As an attorney for the child or parent, you must be a highly skilled litigator and be willing to use the court process to meet your client’s goals. You must … Read More