NCJFCJ considers the appointment of early legal representation for indigent parents as a “best practice” in juvenile dependency proceedings. This Research Memo uses data from a parent representation pilot program in the Travis County, Texas…
In Texas, youth who remain in care for more than a year enter Permanent Managing Conservatorship, and a permanency review hearing is held at least every six months that they remain in care. These hearings…
In the dependency court system, a legal orphan is a child whose parents’ rights have been terminated and who has no legal permanent connection to a family. The child remains in foster care and has…
Judging in juvenile court is specialized and complex, going beyond the traditional role of the judge. Juvenile court judges, as the gatekeepers to the foster care system and guardians of the original problem solving court,…
This technical assistance bulletin provides juvenile and family courts with practice recommendations and tools to improve compliance with the letter of the ICWA as well as with the “spirit of the ICWA” through services and…
Disproportionality and disparities in the treatment of children of color have been a growing concern in the child welfare system. Nationally, the primary concern is the overrepresentation of African American children within the child welfare…
This Technical Assistance Brief can be used to answer two questions. First, how can jurisdictions fully account for the time that judicial officers dedicate to juvenile dependency cases? Second, how many judicial officers does a jurisdiction…
In 2011, the Permanency Planning for Children Department calculated rates of disproportionality in foster care for each state and published the Disproportionality Rates for Children of Color in Foster Care Technical Assistance Bulletin. The report…
Disproportionality and disparities in child welfare appear to be widely recognized, if not fully understood, phenomena. There is often disagreement on how to interpret or find meaning in the empirical evidence that supports the existence…
The purpose of this assessment is to examine the effects of King County’s Parents for Parents Program on engaging parents in the dependency process and case processing timeliness. The evaluation found that participation in Dependency…
Individuals in the dependency system believe that it is important to have parties present at early decision-making hearings without much empirical support. This paper examines how involvement of mothers, fathers, and their respective legal representatives…
In partnership with the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts, the NCJFCJ conducted a judicial workload assessment in Washington State. The assessment identified Spokane County as having adequate judicial resources to meet current workload demands and…