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We've done a lot of Web-surfing lately to find links that may be of interest to those who are lawyers for children, guardians ad litem, judges, juvenile/family court system personnel, and other child advocates. Please give us feedback on these links, and -- most importantly -- let us know about other Web sites you find that we should be posting to our site.davidsonha@staff.abanet.org
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).
Children's Law Centers, Statewide Legal Advocacy/Support Programs, and Law School Programs
Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic, Emory University School of Law (GA)
CA Center for Families, Children & the Courts
Center for Children, Families, and the Law, Hofstra University School of Law
Center for Children's Rights, Drake Law School
Center for Children's Rights, Whittier Law School
Child and Family Justice Center, Northwestern Law School
Child and Family Law Center, Loyola Law School, Chicago
Child Welfare Law Program, Univ. of MI Law School
Children and Family Law Center, Washburn University School of Law
Children's Advocacy Institute, CA
Children's Law Center of CT
Children's Law Center of DC
Children's Law Center of KY
Children's Law Center of Los Angeles
Children's Law Center of MA
Children's Law Center of MN
Children's Law Center of NM
Children's Law Office of SC
Family and Children's Law Center, Harvard Law School
Florida Guardian Ad Litem Program
Florida's Children First
Juvenile Law Center (PA)
Juvenile Rights Project (OR)
KidsCounsel, Univ. of CT Law School
Kids Legal Aid of Maine
KidsVoice (Pittsburgh)
Lawyers for Children (New York City)
Legal Services for Children, San Francisco
MA Committee for Public Counsel Services, Children and Family Law Program
Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center (CO)
Support Center for Child Advocates (Philadelphia)
Texas Lawyers for Children
Later in this page, you'll find a few separate listings for several programs listed above, but we wanted to have on one list those programs we know of that have websites for your perusal. To be included on this list of links, a program must either be a legal advocacy program for children (state or local), a court or government-affiliated program supporting children's lawyers, or a law school student activity program (typically a clinicial experience opportunity) focusing on child welfare. If we've left your program's website off this list, e-mail us and we'll update this list.
Brevity on the Internet
(Weekly Newsletter from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges)
Joey Binard, for quite a while, has been doing a tremendous job of issuing this NCJFCJ weekly update of interesting news items, reports and research findings, and other items of interest to those working on child welfare and juvenile justice cases. It can be read on the web, and you can subscribe to get a reminder about the latest "issue" sent to your e-mail inbox. There is also a well-indexed archive of older items, so you can, for example, read past entries in such categories as child abuse/neglect, foster care, and adoption. This is one of several excellent ways to keep abreast of important developments in our field, and a few others follow below.
Initiated in late 2003, retired juvenile court Judge Dean Lewis has put together a useful resource not just for judges, but for any child advocates involved in child abuse/neglect related cases. There are quick links to the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association and National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges websites (they co-sponsor this "Judges' Page"). There are featured commentary items by juvenile court judges, case law articles, news entries, and other material that you may find nowhere else.
Family and Children's Law Abstracts
Law professors June Carbone and Jane Spinak edit this frequently-updated listing of abstracts of recent law review articles, papers, books, and other materials related to child and family law. On the website, one can browse through their "electronic library" of past abstracts and then read any of these abstracts in their database, as well as see a sample "issue" of their electronic journal of abstracts (for which I believe there is a cost to subscribe).
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.
This 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. Its Litigation Docket will give you a flavor of the issues being litigated in major class action suits brought on children's behalf, and its Foster Care Reform Litigation Docket is one of the best available collections of information on child welfare reform litigation nationally. All lawyers who work on child-related legal issues should bookmark this important site for easy reference.
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. At this valuable site you'll find a list of their training courses and three years' of past issues of the Center's Update newsletter-- each highlighting a critical topic related to child maltreatment investigation and prosecution. 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. There is also material on this site summarizing state laws on various issues related to child abuse-related crimes and evidence issues.
This site, part of the NCSL's website material addressing state laws related to children, youth, and families (see also, http://www.ncsl.org/programs/cyf/cw.htm) 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 (e.g., permanency hearings, child safety assurance, reasonable efforts clarification, termination of parental rights, criminal records checks). 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).
This national organization is devoted to building the capacity of state and local child advocacy organizations. Founded in 1984, it is a nationwide network of child advocacy organizations working at the statehouse, county commission, and city council level on critical reforms for children. With 64 member organizations in 48 states and 11 cities and communities, it serves as a forum where child advocacy leaders from across the country can convene to share ideas and exchange information, formulate joint efforts and coordinate strategies, sharpen their skills, and increase the impact of the child advocacy movement. It establishes links between state and local child advocates and national experts and provides a clearinghouse of information on issues affecting children and effective advocacy.
Best Interests-- The E-Magazine for Children's Advocates
This is another of what I've called "labor of love" websites. And kudos to Marcia for grabbing the domain name "www.childadvocacy.com" She's worked very hard on this site, and there's useful material to be found there. There are separate legal and federal legislation pages, and there's links of interest to children's advocates. This site had links to state child abuse/neglect court improvement websites that we hadn't known of!
Jody Gorran has done a huge amount of work in assembling this website with information on criminal history background checks for people working with children. He was also a leading force behind the recently-enacted federal Volunteers for Children Act (Public Law 105-251, Title II, Subtitle B) that authorizes fingerprint-based national criminal history background checks to screen out volunteers and employees with relevant criminal records from working or volunteering with children, the elderly, or the disabled (particularly those individuals who might have unsupervised access to such individuals). The website has information about his organization, a description of the new federal law and 1993 National Child Protection Act, information on liability and tort law issues, state law enforcement contacts related to record screening, relevant links, etc.
[Note: The Center on Children and the Law developed a document, published in
1998 by the U.S. Department of Justice, entitled Guidelines for the Screening of Persons
Working With Children, the Elderly, and Individuals with Disabilities in Need of Support.
That publication can be viewed and printed in its entirety (using Adobe Acrobat REader)
at: http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles/167248.pdf
The Children's Protection and Advocacy Coalition
Here's another website that an individual advocate (Anne Cox) has put together. There's a lot of interesting material/links here to interest both parents of child victims and professionals working with child victims. The site is similar to the Pandora's Box site also listed as one of our Useful Links. This site has a deeply personal feel, and one cannot help but be moved by the information on children's victimization contained herein.
Communites Against Violence Network (CAVNET)
CAVNET provides a searchable source of information from throughout the web about child abduction, domestic violence, sexual assult, stalking, etc. The issue section on children has a huge number of links to materials on child abuse, the impact of children exposed to domestic violence, child support, and other topics.
For those particularly interested in domestic violence materials, another site with helpful links on that subject is the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence's list of links at: http://www.abanet.org/domviol/sites.html
Child Welfare, Child Health/Mental Health, and Education Links
Center for Adolescent Health and the Law,
Advocates for Youth
National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition, and Girl
Neighborhood Power
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Permanency Planning for Children
Take This Heart: The Foster Care
Program
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges has produced one of the most important recent publications on improving the way that courts handle child abuse/neglect, foster care, and termination of parental rights cases. That book, Resource Guidelines: Improving Court Practice in Child Abuse & Neglect Cases, can be purchased from this site, but more importantly the entire text of the book can be downloaded for free at: http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles/resguid.pdf (you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download by clicking here). Also on their site, a Child Victims Model Courts Initiative is described, and you can learn about other ways in which this organization is helping the nation's courts be more responsive to child maltreatment victims.
Take this Heart: The Foster Care Project is
co-produced on-line by KCTS/Seattle and the Benton Foundation, and it is an outgrowth of
an outstanding television documentary about the lives of children in foster care. The site
has a wealth of information about foster care, the child welfare system, federal reforms,
state data and other research survey findings, information on kinship care, children aging
out of foster care, etc. If you want up-to-the-minute useful information on issues related
to American foster care policy and how states are working to improve the
"system", this is a great site.
National Health Law
Program
Children's Defense Fund Child
Health Page
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
The National Health Law Program has posted on-line a range of useful materials related to child and adolescent health. This includes a summary of their 1988 report, Children's Health Under Medicaid: A National Review of Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment and lots of information on medicaid managed care. They have analyzed many of today's leading health law issues and have great links to other resources on the web. If you are involved with health law advocacy for a child, this is a critical website to look at.
The Children's Defense Fund has a voluminous website that most child advocates browsing the web have undoubtedly looked at. We wanted to mention here their excellent page on child health issues. This is the best source we've yet found on how the State Children's Health Program (also known as "CHIP") is being implemented around the country. This, and the NHLP site above, are two critical sites to check out if you are going to be involved in child health policy reform.
The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is the best site we've yet found for advocates of child mental health service reform. On their site, you'll find policy alerts on special education, SSI, managed care, and other issues. There are separate resource pages for child welfare, children's mental health services, children with disabilities, and SSI for children.
State Special Education Law Resources
This page (which may be updated periodically) was put together with the help of members of an organization called The Council of Parents Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) that is involved in advocacy for parents of children with special education needs. Here you'll be able to find links to state education codes, sites of state special education agency websites, state agency rules and regulations, sites with special education judicial and administrative decisions, etc.
Child Sex Offender Policy Materials
A Model State Sex-Offender Policy
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has recently posted on their website the text of a 1998 document they've developed on state sex offender law and policy reform. It contains a comprehensive strategy for carefully assessing existing state approaches towards those who have committed sexual offenses against children. The document contains a multi-point criminal justice system response strategy that was drafted by an expert panel for the NCMEC. References are included. Reviewing this is an essential first-step for those advocating for systemic change related to sex offenders.
Sex Offender Registration Policy Documents Available
On-Line from The U.S. Department of Justice
National Criminal Justice Reference Service Search Page
From typing in the keywords "Sex Offender Registration" at this site we found such useful materials as a report from a National Conference on Sex Offender Registries and papers on Sex Offender Community Notification and Managing Adult Sex Offenders in the Community.
State-by-State Listings of Sex Offender Registry and Community Notification Laws
On our "Useful Links" page there has long been a link to the great "Pandora's Box: The Secrecy of Child Sexual Abuse" website. The above-listed part of that site has both state sex offender registration law information and even links to various city/county offender registry information on-line.
Center for Sex Offender Management
This organization's website containts an interesting November 1997 on-line paper with up-to-date information on sex offender community notification law and policy implementation issues and questions.
The Klaas Kids Foundation, begun in memory of the murdered child, Polly Klaas, has a site that includes state-by-state information on Megan's Laws. They collected this information from the Washington State Institute for Public Policy, and as of the time we reviewed the material it was current as of May 1998). There was also a (frightening) list of the number of registered sex offenders per state as of May 1998, and links to state sex offender and community notification websites that provide citizens with access to information through the internet.
Additional Useful Links
Florida
Department of Children and Families
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory
Services
A number of state child welfare agencies have developed useful websites that not only describe their services in the child abuse and neglect, foster care, and adoption areas, but also provide the text of some relevant state publications as well as case statistics. These three sites are good examples of this, and they may be of interest to even children's advocates who are outside of those states' borders. A review of the content of these sites will give web browsers a good idea of the challenges faced by state child protective service programs, some of the system reform efforts now going on in the U.S., and how government agencies can help members of the public better understand their mission and goals.
The Annie E. Casey
Foundation
The Casey Journalism Center
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Families for Kids Initiative
The Dave Thomas Foundation on Adoption
There a number of private foundations doing important work on behalf of children and youth. The staff of the ABA Center on Children and the Law are appreciative that some of these have supported our own projects. The Annie E. Casey Foundation has been involved in a number of child-oriented initiatives.
For example, they support a journalism center that is an excellent resource for reporters covering child-related news stories. The Kellogg Foundation has a special initiative focused on securing permanent families for children in the foster care system. Dave Thomas (founder of Wendy's) has established a foundation to promote adoption. As we discover other child welfare-related foundation Web information, we'll add it here.
National Adoption
Information Clearinghouse
Adoption Law Materials
The Text of the Hague
Convention on Intercountry Adoption
Adoption Law and Reforms
The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
These four adoption law and policy-related sites should collectively provide voluminous information to those interested in legal issues and trends in federal and state adoption law and policy. The Clearinghouse is a federally-funded comprehensive adoption information resource. Their National Adoption Directory Online permits access to a database of state adoption and licensing specialists, adoption exchanges, photolistings, reunion registries, attorney referral services, listings of public and private adoption agencies, adoptive parent, adoptee, and birth parent support groups, a searchable database of over 3,700 adoption-related doucments, on-line statistics, adoption search-related information, on-line publications and fact sheets, and much more. The text of the proposed U.S. legislation to ratify our country's participation in the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption is posted. We are proud that our Center developed for them a summary overview of nine elements of adoption laws for each of the states, and this material is now on-line as well.
The folks at Cornell have done a good job in assembling laws, appellate court decisions, and other legal material on adoption. We have added a link to the full text of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. This is part of a broad and very useful adoption law site, called Adoption Law and Reforms, that provides useful information on State, Federal, and International adoption laws. Finally, a new voluminous adoption policy site is the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute web pages, that has policy papers and a wealth of current material on adoption-related policy concerns. Each site has links that can take you even further into studying adoption law and policy.
Information
on Children and the Court System
Guardian Ad Litem Resource Page
Both of these sites are the result of hard work and dedication by Chuck Bennett, a Missouri lawyer and guardian ad litem for children. The first site discusses various types of court cases involving children and the responsibilities of guardians ad litem and court appointed special advocates (CASA), and it provides links to a host of relevant child advocacy resources on the Web (including us) as well as information about child abuse and foster care. The second site still has a lot of construction work going on, but when finished will provide much useful information about what (from Chuck's point of view) lawyers for children should be doing. He also includes here lots of good links to other sites addressing child representation, standards and guidelines for lawyers representing children from other sources (including us), and lots of resource information.
Adoption 2002 Federal Children's Bureau Initiative
In response to the Clinton Administration's Adoption 2002 initative, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued a set of Guidelines for Public Policy and State Legislation Governing Permanence for Children (June 1999). Co-written by ABA Center on Children and the Law child welfare director Mark Hardin and Professor Donald Duquette of the University of Michigan School of Law, these guidelines with commentary address options for legal permanency, reasonable efforts requirements, the court process, non-adversarial case resolution, termination of parental rights, and legal representation of children, parents, and child welfare agencies.
American Medical Association Adolescent Health On-Line
One of our partner organizations for our adolescent health initiative, this AMA page has loads of information on adolescent health issues, resources,training, and website links. Anyone representing teenagers with unmet health needs should start their research here.
National
Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Association
Resource Site for CASA Volunteers and Anyone Interested
in Child Welfare Case Advocacy
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. The first is their public outreach site to help recruit CASA volunteers that can help protect the interests of court-involved abused and neglected children. The second site is 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.
Children's Rights Law
Materials
Child Custody Law Materials
These sites provide links to key sections of the U.S. Code dealing with child abuse, child welfare, and child custody issues. From here, one can also link to many state family law statutes and other family law material.
Child Abuse Prevention Network, Cornell Family Life Development Center
Tom Hanna is the country's number one child protection "webmeister". One look at this site will tell you why. From here, you can access the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse, the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse's New York Chapter, and other related links. You can also sign up for child abuse-related Mailing Lists (List Serves), and be connected to many other child abuse-related Web sites, including Cornell's National Date Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect.
National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information
Another rich child abuse-related site. Most helpful may be your ability to do on-line database searches of over 22,000 records on child abuse and neglect and child welfare issues!
Center for the Future of Children, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
This Foundation issues an important quarterly publication, "The Future of Children," that addresses critical issues in the field. For example, their Winter 1996 issue is devoted to "The Juvenile Court." You can access this and the other reports through this site.
Professor Duncan Lindsey at the School of Public Policy and Social Research at UCLA has put together this voluminous site, one that should be looked at by anyone involved in child abuse, foster care, or adoption research and practice. The Child Welfare Review is an electronic journal that has current papers on important topics in child welfare, drawn from material throughout the world, and a Child Welfare Library that contains links to major journals, think tanks, and research organizations in the field. There is also a page of "Hot Links" to other child welfare-related sites. The Child Welfare Home Page site is fully searchable.
The 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.
Pandora's Box: The Secrecy of Child Sexual Abuse
Some web pages are truly labors of love, dedication, and incredible hard work -- and this is one of them. Nancy Faulkner, Ph.D., has put together this HUGE website with load of materials and links on every aspect of child sexual abuse, including legislation-related information. There's lots of inspiration and comfort here for child sexual abuse victims, but much practical information for child advocate attorneys as well. Note that a new addition is a Discussion Group in which messages can be posted about child protection system failures and what can be done about them.
University of Michigan Law School Child Welfare Law Program
This program, long headed by Professor Don Duquette, a real leader in the field, includes placements for summer "child law fellows," identification of child welfare law offices throughout the country, information on developing law school education programs in child welfare, information about the Kellogg Foundation's Advanced Fellowships in Child Welfare Law and Policy, legal work being done in Kellogg Families for Kids Initiative states and communities, a Child Welfare Law Job Database, and other interesting information.
The
U.S. State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs
http://travel.state.gov/family/family_1732.html
These sites provide much helpful information to those involved with either intercountry adoption issues or the abduction of children from one country to another. The first site describes the work of the State Department's Office of Children's Issues. The second site has much information about international abduction, such as the text of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, a sample abduction prevention letter, material on how over 15 nations address this issue, and a link to The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Also included is information on intercountry adoption policies of over 70 nations, general information for U.S. citizens on adopting children abroad, statistics on intercountry adoption, and a link to The National Adoption Clearinghouse.
The Hilton House International and Domestic Child Abduction Web Site
Attorney William M. Hilton of Santa Clara, CA has done extraordinary work assembling this gigantic site. No lawyer or judge handling family-related child abduction cases who has Web access can afford to miss looking at this -- probably regularly -- as Bill is constantly adding material. The site has over 150 files covering issues and cases related to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, its U.S. implementing legislation (the International Child Abduction Remedies Act), the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdication Act, and the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act. This site is loaded with the texts of judicial decisions related to the Hague Convention, articles about the Convention, etc. There are also links to other Web sites with information on international child abduction.
The Center for Effective Discipline
Colin Farrell's Worldwide Corporal Punishment of Children
Research Website
Those intersted in knowing about activities to help end the physical punishment of children -- both within the United States and throughout the world -- will find these two sites helpful. The first is the website for the organization EPOCH-USA (or End Physical Punishment of Children-USA). This is the American affiliate of EPOCH-WORLDWIDE, a multinational federation committed to ending corporal punishment of children through education and legal reforms. On the EPOCH-USA site you'll find the facts and fiction about spanking, information on biblical pronouncments about parental striking of children, state legislative developments and other legal news, and much other relevant information. Colin Farrell of Great Britain has an information-filled website with, as he puts it, "4 megabytes of documentation on chastisement around the world." Here you'll learn what the U.S. and other nations are doing regarding corporal punishment of children in schools and in the home. Colin's research literally scans the planet to pick up relevant news stories about children's spanking, canings, whippings, etc.
Kids' Counsel Support
in Connecticut
A Critical Analysis of the Child Welfare
and Foster Care System
The first is a terrific example of what a law school can do when it has an interest in improving the quality of legal representation provided within its state. The University of Connecticut School of Law has created a website entitled "Kids Counsel: Center for Child Advocacy." At this site you'll find CT.-focused breaking news and latest caselaw and legislative developments, a legal resources list, a pleadings bank, professional and placement resources that lawyers can access on behalf of their child clients, training opportunity listings, and useful other websites.
Finally, in what looks again like the work of one person, in this case Rick Thoma, there is a fascinating site entitled "Lifting the Veil: Examining the Child Welfare, Foster Care and Juvenile Justice Systems." There are a series of articles called "A Critical Look at the Foster Care System," analyses on child abuse reporting, reasonable efforts, Kansas foster care privatization, "Lost Children," the Indian Child Welfare Act, children who died due to parental maltreatment, etc. Thoma appears to regularly update the site with news stories from throughout the U.S. on child welfare system issues, and he has included within his site articles on the incidence of child abuse (Doug Besharov), the MA. foster care system (Boston Globe), children at risk (Sacramento Bee), child protective services and foster care in Nevada (Las Vegas Sun) and New Mexico (Albuquerque Journal), and one family's 12-year fight for their children (Detroit News). Thoma also has a database of studies, surveys, etc. on foster care, child welfare, and more, the text of U.S. Supreme Court decisions related to "Parental Rights," the text of congressional testimony by child advocates and others, and still more.
National Resource
Center for Special Needs Adoption
National Child Welfare
Resource Center for Organizational Improvement
National Resource Center for Youth Development
National Resource Center for
Permanency Planning
National Resource Center for Respite and
Crisis Care Services
National Resource Center for Child Protective Services
Over the years, our Center, as a recipient of a federally-supported national child welfare resource center grant (on legal and court issues) has worked with a number of counterpart national organizations that are "resource centers" in other areas. We've recently looked at their websites and include them here because they have useful on-line content. The National Resource Center for Special Needs Adoption is operated by Spaulding for Children in Southfield, Michigan. Their website lists their services and materials and has useful links to other children and adoption-related websites. The National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement is based at the University of Southern Maine. Their website lists their training, teleconferences, and clearinghouse resources. The National Resource Center for Youth Services is based at the University of Oklahoma. Again, their training, conferences, publications, and other services are described. The National Resource Center for Permanency Planning is based at the Hunter College School of Social Work in New York City. They also list their trainings, technical assistance services, conferences, and materials available from them. The National Resource Center for Respite and Crisis Care Services, operated by The ARCH in Chapel Hill, NC, has a website that describes its services. Finally, the National Resource Center for Child Protective Services, based at ACTION for Child Protection, Inc., has a number of articles and other materials available for download.
The Institute for Families in Society, University of South Carolina
This program has a series of useful fact sheets on such issues as early brain development and early intervention, chronic and disabling conditions in children and youth, and neighborhood-family connections. This program also is the lead group for the Consortium on Children, Families and the Law, which consists of research programs at universities throughout the country as well as several national professional organizations (the ABA Center on Children and the Law is one).
Children's Law Office for South Carolina
Although the number of specialized children's law programs, often community-based nonprofit agencies or law school-affiliated programs, is increasing, few are "on-line." This is one of them, and its a great model for what other similar programs might try to do in making good use of the Internet. This program is affiliated with the University of South Carolina School of Law. It is a useful source for lawyers in their state practicing in the child law area. Training information, case decisions, key legislation, legal forms, and an on-line manual for lawyers representing children are included.
National Conference of State Legislatures, Child Welfare Materials
This organization publishes, each year an invaluable
compendium of summarized state legislative enactments related to children, youth, and
families. Their website also has some useful information on confidentiality in children's
protective services, challenges in state implementation of the Adoption and Safe Families
Act, new directions in CPS-community relationships, etc. From here you can also access
NCSL materials on juvenile justice, child care, and welfare reform.
Adoption/Foster/Kinship Care Publications On-Line
This page, part of a comprehensvie "Welfare
Information Network" website, has a long list of links to on-line texts of important
law and policy-related materials on child welfare issues. There are also "Issue
Papers" on abuse/negelct, child well-being, welfare reform, child welfare data and
research, family services, and state/federal efforts. When we last checked, we could
quickly access a large number of key documents from government and private organization
sources. The page appears to be regularly updated with material from groups across the
political spectrum. We were pleased that the ABA's recent (February 1999) kinship care
policy resolution could be accessed from this page.
Lawyers for Children, New York, NY
This program has provided legal assistance to children since 1984. LFC's work has included impact (class action) litigation, a child sexual abuse evaluation and education project, a child-centered visitation center, and the publishing of handbooks for children in foster care. Their website has material on the rights of children in foster care, including their right to be heard in court. They also have information on surving sexual abuse and getting help.