National Child Welfare Resource Center on
Legal and Judicial Issues
Print Publications
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How
to Work With Your Court: A Guide for Child Welfare Agency
Administrators (2nd edition).
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Learning
Curves: Education Advocacy for Children in Foster Care. The culmination
of an article series that appeared in the ABA Child Law Practice,
this addresses numerous topics, including: General education advocacy
strategies; Education rights and key federal laws; Special education
process; Educational needs of young children; How school discipline
policies impact children in foster care; and Creative approaches
to address education barriers for children in foster care. It
includes at-a-glance practice tips, commonly used psychological
tests, education advocacy resources, and excerpts from key federal
laws and regulations. |
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Legal
Ethics in Child Welfare Cases. This culmination
of an article series that appeared in the ABA Child Law Practice
addresses ethical issues for lawyers representing parents, children,
and child welfare agencies in child abuse/neglect and termination
of parental rights proceedings. It addresses the following topics:
Quality Representation; Protecting client confidences; Representing
a client with diminished capacity; Handling conflicts of interest;
Interacting with other parties; Ethical issues in litigation;
and Special issues for Guardians ad Litem. The appendices include
selected model rules with commentary and the status of state review
of rules of professional conduct. The National Child Welfare Resource
Center on Legal and Judicial Issues offers free training and technical
assistance on issues covered in the book. |
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Making
it Permanent: Reasonable Efforts to Finalize Permanency Plans
for Foster Children. Permanency
Planning for children in the child welfare system has undergone
significant changes in recent years. The federal Adoption and
Safe families Act of 1997 (ASFA) aims to create a system that
is more responsive to the needs of children in foster care for
safety, well-being and permanence. ASFA requires that permanency
plans for children are determined at regular permanency hearings.
Judges must find that the child welfare agency is making "reasonable
efforts" to finalize those plans. This book provides detailed
information on law and practice in this area. |
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Making Sense of
the ASFA (Adoption and Safe Families Act) Regulations: A Roadmap
for Effective Implementation. This book
consists of issue-by-issue summaries and analyses of important,
and comprehensive, regulations of the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) promulgated in 2000 to aid state and
local implementation of Titles IV-B and IV-E of the Social Security
Act, as amended by the 1997 federal Adoption and Safe Families
Act. Twenty separate topics are addressed, such as reasonable
efforts findings, judicial orders specifying a child's placement,
foster/adoptive home safety requirements, permanency hearings,
termination of parental rights, the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act,
etc. Appendix material addresses key administrative and constitutional
law issues related to interpretation and application of the regulations,
including its preamble. Supporting legal authorities and a list
of further readings are included. This book was produced through
the work of 11 staff from throughout the Center reviewing the
HHS regulations and writing various sections of the summary/analysis.
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Representing Parents in Child Welfare Cases: A Basic Introduction for
Attorneys. Helps attorneys
new to child protection cases understand their role as parents’
representatives and advocates; reviews the various stages of the
child protection case; and highlights other key resources that
discuss and explore the child welfare system generally. |
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Foundations
for Success: Strengthening Your Agency Attorney Office
(1999). Helps child
welfare agency attorney offices focus on necessary changes in
hiring practices, evaluation processes, standards of practice,
and efficient use of resources to improve the level of representation. |
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Making
Differences Work: Cultural Context in Abuse and Neglect Practice
for Judges and Attorneys (1996). Outlines ways
to interact with litigants from different cultures and backgrounds
and identifies key culture and subculture issues. |
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Sharing Information:
A Guide to Federal Laws on Confidentiality and Disclosure of Information
for Child Welfare Agencies (1997). This guide
helps child welfare agencies identify their responsibilities and
develop appropriate policies under the federal laws governing
confidentiality. Provides an overview of nine federal laws that
affect child welfare agencies: child abuse prevention and treatment;
foster care, adoption assistance and child welfare services; alcohol
and other drug programs; education records; federal welfare reform;
Medicaid; HIV/AIDS information; the national criminal history
background check system; and the crimes against children and sexual
offender registration programs. |
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The
National Child Welfare Resource Center on Legal and Judicial
Issues also contributes to numerous publications produced
by the American Bar Association Center on Children and the
Law. Resource Center staff frequently author articles published
in Child Law Practice and Child CourtWorks, and serve as
authors, co-authors and editors to books and monographs
produced by the Center on Children and the Law. |
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