Parent Representation
Accomplishing Our Goals
- Assisting Practitioners
- Informing Policy
- Parental Engagement
- Creating a National Organization for Parents Attorneys
Assisting Practitioners
The project partners will nurture and encourage new and seasoned lawyers as well as social workers and parent advocates to join this extraordinarily important, but underappreciated field. The project will do so by focusing on
- Training
- Implementing Standards
- Analyzing and Improving Caseloads and Compensation and
- Providing Other On and Off Site Technical Assistance As Needed
- Moderating a Listserv For Practitioners and Using Other Electronic Tools to Provide an Networking Opportunity
- Creating Electronic Newsletters to Alert Parents’ Lawyers and Other Professionals Working With Them to New Developments and Successful Strategies in Other Jurisdictions
- Collecting and Sharing Model Briefs and Trial Memoranda
The project will also sponsor a national conference for attorneys, social workers and parent advocates who represent parents in child abuse and neglect cases. The conference will provide an opportunity for practitioners to hear from national experts as well as network together. There will be time for information sharing as well as more formal lectures.
Informing Policy
Supporting individual attorneys is one important aspect of the project, but working to change the child welfare system as a whole is also essential. As the project progresses, the staff will work to join national, state and local-level coalitions and discussions focused on helping families and creating policies. As the second round of federal Child and Family Service Reviews (CFSR) begin, states will be focused on practice reform. Improved representation is a large part of that, and this project will help lead the way. One project goal is to become sufficiently visible and well-known that it will become unthinkable to hold hearings or policy meetings without inviting parents’ attorneys to participate to ensure parents’ perspectives are considered before new policy is enacted.
Parental Engagement
Engaging and empowering parents is a key step to systems reform. The project will research and report on efforts of parents and parent advocates to improve practice in courts and influence policy. It will start with chronicling the work in New York and include efforts in jurisdictions across the country. The publication will include a discussion of what has gone well in these jurisdictions and what challenges have been faced. Giving voice to the often voiceless parent in the child welfare system is essential to positive outcomes for children and families.
Creating a National Organization for Parents’ Attorneys
One long range goal of the project is to form a national organization to support attorneys who represent parents in the child welfare system. Representing parents can be lonely and difficult. This organization would provide the support, training, information sharing, and networking opportunities attorneys need to provide the best possible representation for their clients.
