New Books Address Legal Representation in Child Welfare Cases, Educating Foster Children, Running Child Welfare Agencies, and Court Improvement Programs
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 25, 2005 – The American Bar Association Center for Children and the Law this month published four books intended to assist lawyers and others providing assistance to children in the legal system: Court Improvement Progress Report 2004 National Summary; Learning Curves: Education Advocacy For Children In Foster Care; How To Work With Your Court: A Guide For Child Welfare Agency Administrators, 2nd Edition; and Legal Ethics In Child Welfare Cases. Together, these books provide valuable resources for lawyers, judges, court administrators and others working with children involved in legal proceedings.
The 2004 Court Improvement Progress Update includes online state summaries and national summary sections that detail current court improvement projects throughout the country in each jurisdiction that receives court improvement grant funds and in each of the major areas of court performance.
The Update also includes a printed hard copy of the 2004 National Summary providing an overview of court improvement activities, and a state contact list of Court Improvement Directors in each state. Legal Ethics In Child Welfare Cases is the culmination of a series of articles that appeared in the Child Law Practice, the ABA Center for Children and the Law’s monthly publication. It addresses ethical issues for lawyers representing parents, children, and child welfare agencies in child abuse/neglect and termination of parental rights proceedings by identifying ethical dilemmas, informing lawyers of their ethical obligations, and providing practical guidance on what to do in difficult situations where the appropriate course of action is not readily apparent. Specific ethical issues addressed include: conflicts of interest, dealing with clients with diminished capacity, confidentiality, high caseloads, and litigation issues.
Learning Curves: Education Advocacy For Children In Foster Care, which is also the culmination of a series of articles in the ABA Child Law Practice, focuses on how to meet the education needs of children in the foster care system. It addresses general education advocacy strategies, education rights and key federal laws, the special education process, education needs of young children, how school discipline policies affect children in foster care, and creative approaches to address education barriers for children in foster care.
How To Work With Your Court: A Guide For Child Welfare Agency Administrators, 2nd Edition is intended to help child welfare agency administrators improve agency/court relationships. In contains recommendations for strengthening child welfare agency attorney offices and improving agency-court collaboration in state Child and Family Service Reviews (CFSRs). This book offers agency administrators strategies for working with courts, including meeting with judges, developing special court projects, training workers to perform well in court, and using agency attorneys and paralegals, among others. It also explores key issues for agency-court collaboration, what agency attorneys need to know about juvenile court, and steps for improving child welfare agency legal representation.
Court Improvement Progress Report 2004 National Summary costs $9.95; Learning Curves: Education Advocacy For Children In Foster Care and Legal Ethics In Child Welfare Cases each cost $15.95, and How To Work With Your Court: A Guide For Child Welfare Agency Administrators, 2nd Editioncosts $15.99. They are all available online at www.ababooks.org, or by calling the ABA Service Center at 800/285-2221.
With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law in a democratic society.
