INFORMATION ABOUT THE CENTER

In 1978 the American Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division created the ABA Center on Children and the Law. From modest origins as a small legal resource center focusing exclusively on child abuse and neglect issues, the Center has grown into a full-service technical assistance, training, and research program addressing a broad spectrum of law and court-related topics affecting children. These include child abuse and neglect, adoption, adolescent and infant/toddler health, foster and kinship care, juvenile status offenders, custody and support, guardianship, missing and exploited children, and children's exposure to domestic violence.

The Center’s work is mostly funded through grants and contracts from a wide variety of governmental and private sources. Our largest grant project is the National Child Welfare Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues, a program of the Children’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

Other major Center programs have included:

• Child abuse/neglect related court improvement projects supported that have been supported by the Freddie Mac and Packard Foundations and the U.S. Department of Justice;
• A project addressing legal issues related to community-based child protection reforms that was supported by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation;
• Projects addressing adolescent health law issues, and education of lawyers and judges on infant/toddler development issues, supported by the Office of Adolescent Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the W.T. Grant Foundation;
• A project evaluating and supporting use of alternative technological methods for taking child victim statements/testimony supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice
• Activities related to domestic and international parental child abduction that, in the past, were supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice, U.S. Department of Justice; and
• Several state-focused technical assistance, training, and research projects supported by contracts to the Center from such states as Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Kentucky, New York, Iowa, Ohio, and Michigan.

The Center's primary educational resource is its monthly ABA Child Law Practice subscription publication. We also produce a free periodical on court system improvement, the ABA Child CourtWorks and co-edit the Children's Legal Rights Journal. The Center also has over 35 books, manuals, curricula, and reports available on various child welfare topics.

The Center's mission is "to improve children's lives through advances in law, justice, knowledge, practice, and public policy." It accomplishes this through law reform, education and training, publications, social science research, and technical assistance. Most Center work is made possible by grant or contract support from public and private sources. The following is offered to provide a flavor of Center activities, and what the Center can do for agencies, courts, and/or organizations.

Meeting Children's Needs Through Many Avenues

The Center's approach is broad, and meets children's needs through several channels: helping reform laws and public policies; improving systems that serve children; training professionals in the field to enhance skills and knowledge; providing assistance to states and localities to improve responses to children in need; and developing educational resources for legal and other professionals to improve children's lives.

Using an Interdisciplinary Approach

The Center's work integrates law, public policy, and social science research. This approach broadens understanding of the issues and problems facing today's children. With staff and consultants from the legal and social science fields informing each other, our training, technical assistance, program studies, and publications benefit from the collective efforts and ideas of many minds and disciplines.

Manual Development

The Center has frequently contracted with courts and social service agencies to develop legal manuals for attorneys, judges, and social workers. Examples include A Judicial Benchbook on Colorado Child Welfare Law, New York Child Welfare Legal Manual for DSS Attorneys and Law Guardians, and Iowa Child Welfare Law: A Manual for Social Science Workers.

An experienced lawyer/information design team, aided by in-state consultants, has produced such manuals. The manuals have reflected state law and policy in the overall context of "best practice" and have been written in a format and style conducive to learning. We also produced an interactive, on-line, child welfare legal manual used by Iowa social workers.

Training

As the practice of "children's law" has become more complex, the Center is available to help design and conduct state and local training. The Center has developed a variety of national curricula that can be adapted for local needs. As with our publications program, Center training and curricula are developed by a multidisciplinary team, including curricula design consultants, to help maximize the learning experience. The Center specializes in both live and long distance-learning training. As an added bonus, Center-developed training qualifies for continuing legal education in all states.

“Trial Skills for Child Welfare Attorneys” is our flagship training program. This day-long program is ideal for child welfare agency legal staff, county/municipal attorney offices, and other agencies that provide legal representation for agency caseworkers. The course includes a mix of lectures, demonstrations, and mock trial exercises for participants. Each program is specially adapted for local practice and state law, and each participant leaves with continuing legal education credits--and a trial notebook to help them organize and prepare for their next case.

Technical Assistance

Center staff can provide on-site technical assistance to courts and agencies on many topics. Among the issues we can offer guidance on are: local implementation of federal laws that affect child welfare practice, including: the Adoption and Safe Families Act, Indian Child Welfare Act, and Multiethnic Placement Act; assistance to states in addressing their federal Child and Family Services Reviews, Program Improvement Plans, and Court Improvement Project reforms; changes in child abuse and neglect laws and procedures; and speeding the process of legally freeing children for adoption and permanent guardianship.

Currently, the bulk of our technical assistance work is done through our National Child Welfare Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues. The Resource Center is supported by the Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. The Resource Center provides free technical assistance, training, and research support to public child welfare agencies, public law offices, and courts. We provide such assistance on-site and off-site.

The Center also provides highly intensive or large-scale training and technical assistance programs through contracts with state and local governments and private agencies and organizations. For example, through past funding from the State Justice Institute, the Center helped produce judicial "benchbooks" on such topics as handling child sexual abuse allegations in custody/visitation cases, improving court-appointed legal representation for children, enhancing the response by courts to family-related substance abuse problems, and helping judges make child-centered decisions in custody cases.

The Center can also help states create and implement projects to reduce delays and overcome barriers to the termination of parental rights. In light of federal Adoption and Safe Families Act requirements, this has become an increasingly important activity. Based on over ten years of experience in many counties in New York State, we have developed systems and procedures to help states and localities achieve this outcome. Through such work, we helped reduce the amount of time children spend in foster care by an average of 12 months and saved the State of New York over 7 million dollars in foster care costs.

Social Science Research and Evaluation

The Center's legal process reform work is supported by social scientist support of research and evaluation activities, either through the Center alone or in collaboration with other organizations. Center research assistance is available to do work for state and local agencies and courts. For example, staff can help courts study implementation of child welfare court improvements, assist states in evaluating legal representation provided to children, parents, and child welfare agencies, examine how state child protection laws are working, and determine reasons for delays in the court processing of child abuse/neglect cases..

Center Information Provided Through the Internet

The Center's home page is continually updated with information helpful to lawyers, judges, and other child advocates. Examples of accessible material include: ABA-approved standards for lawyers representing abused/neglected children, parents, and child welfare agencies; other ABA policies related to children, youth, and families dating back to 1979; state child protection-related court reform reports and other files for downloading; analysis of recent federal legislation related to child protection; and Center activity reports and other new developments.

Internship Opportunities at the Center

Law students, other graduate students, and undergraduate students interested in internship or fellowship positions at the Center should contact the director and review materials on the Center's website.