NATIONAL CHILD LAW PROGRAMS
The Children's Rights, Inc., is a leading litigator on behalf of abused/neglected children and kids languishing in foster care, this organization has helped prod considerable reform throughout the country by use of statewide or local class action law suits, brought with the help of local child advocates. At their website, you will find a description of their strategies for child welfare systemic change, information on the progress of, and impact on, all their class action cases (a dozen major CRI cases, brought in 10 states and the District of Columbia, were listed/described as of June 2001), copies of written articles/materials by their staff, and other information about their work.
National Association of Counsel for Children
Every attorney or judge who has taken time to read the ABA Center on Children and the Law's website material should consider membership in the NACC, the pre-eminent membership organization for legal professionals involved with children's issues. Their home page has a membership application, information about their publications and annual conferences, and other resources they offer. Begun over 20 years ago by Don Bross, the NACC now has several thousand members and the best-attended annual children's law conference in the country.
National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse
This Center, a program of the American Prosecutors Research Institute at the National District Attorneys Association, has long been the leader in training prosecutors, and those who work with them, on issues related to the criminal justice system handling of child abuse cases. . The Center has also been a leading program in the training of prosecutors on handling parental child abduction and computer-related crimes against children. Books available from this Center's site include their seminal handbook, "Investigation and Prosecution of Child Abuse," as well as materials on child fatality review teams, parental kidnapping, and other topics addressed in Center trainings.
The National Center for Youth Law is a San Francisco-based private, non-profit legal program for children and families began as a national support program for legal services offices throughout the country. It has evolved into a major resource for information, available to everyone, on children's legal issues. It publishes the subscription periodical Youth Law News, which contains well-written articles on a broad range of children's legal issues (some articles can can be found on-line). Its website has materials on adolescent/child health, child support, child welfare/adoption, fair housing, juvenile justice/institutions, public benefits, etc.
National Conference of State Legislatures'
This link is part of the NCSL's website. This web page provides information on various state laws enacted to implement the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act. The legislation is organized according to state and topic. In general, the NCSL's website has considerable useful information on cutting-edge state legislative reforms related to children (for example, an issue paper, with summaries of recent state legislation, on infant abandoment immunity laws).
National Court-Appointed Special Advocate Association (CASA)
You don't need to be a lawyer to get involved in advocating for abused and neglected children in the court process. You can volunteer to become a Court-Appointed Special Advocate. Interested in learning more about this? If so, the National CASA Association has two content-rich sites. This is their public outreach site to help recruit CASA volunteers that can help protect the interests of court-involved abused and neglected children. Or you can click here for CASA volunteers, CASA staff, and others. On that site there is an incredible amount of useful advocacy-related material, including a section under "Library" with information on guardian ad litem issues.
National Directory of Children's Ombudsman Programs
Throughout the country, government programs have been created to receive and investigate complaints about services to children and families. Some of these programs are called "children's ombudsman" offices, others "child advocate" offices, or they may have other names. Most are independent from the children's services delivery agencies, but some are housed within them. The above link is for a directory of over 25 such programs, developed and maintained by Laureen D'Ambra, head of Rhode Island's Office of the Child Advocate (a model for several similar programs in other states). Persons interested in the child ombudsmen issue should also know that our Center published, in 1993, a book entitled "Establishing Ombudsman Programs for Children and Youth" (for information on how to obtain this, call 202/662-1743).
