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The controlling federal family regulation law, the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 ("ASFA"), has long been criticized for unnecessarily terminating the rights of parents and leaving thousands of children in its wake without legal parents or any prospect for adoption. Critics highlight the irreparable destruction ASFA has caused the Black community, and many suggest that this result is by design, not disproportionate impact. As a result, a growing movement of impacted parents, advocates, and scholars have called for ASFA's total repeal. This article draws on the work of these parents, advocates, and scholars to argue that a law whose foundation is built on inherently prejudicial policies cannot be repaired; it must be dismantled in its entirety. Dismantling is necessary not only for practical legal reasons, but also because of the symbolic importance of repeal to those most impacted by the law and its attendant policies. Laws have expressive value, and as such, the repeal of harmful laws demonstrates our priorities, our beliefs and who we are as a society. This article examines previous attempts at reform to demonstrate that any attempt to amend ASFA would be insufficient to address its fundamental flaws. Finally, the article concludes by proposing a path forward that is led by impacted families, respects the right to family integrity and recognizes the importance of supporting and investing in communities. Key points for the family court community: The Adoption and Safe Families Act is built on a foundation of inherently prejudicial policies.ASFA's structure also undermines efforts to keep families together.A growing community of impacted people, activists, advocates and scholars believe that ASFA should be repealed becuase of its destructive impact on low‐income parents and communities of color.Other efforts at reform have only increased the abilty of the state to surveil and punish.Laws have expressive value and many believe that repealing a harmful law is crucial to healing communities that have been harmed.To truly begin to atone for the harms of the past, we must envision a path forward that shifts power, invests in the community and is completely transforms our approach to "child welfare."Impacted parents must lead the effort towards change and allies and advocates should listen, learn, act with humility and support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic has thrust the world into a crisis – and the child welfare system is particularly susceptible to its effects. This pandemic has exacerbated some of the most problematic aspects of the system, and its impacts will reverberate long after the immediate crisis ends. As COVID‐19 spread, families were instantly impacted – in‐person family time was cancelled, youth and families were unable to access basic resources, services, and technology, and access to the courts was curtailed. Those short‐term effects may give way to long‐term harms such as disrupted attachments and delays in achieving permanency. The pandemic also reinforced the importance of key tenets of a well‐functioning child welfare system: high‐quality legal representation, creativity, and youth and family engagement. Attorneys must learn from the fallout of the pandemic, retain the best responsive practices, and use the lessons learned from this crisis to transform dependency cases, and the system writ large, into what families need and deserve. Key Points for the Family Court Community: Many child welfare agencies and courts' first response to COVID‐19 was to suspend in‐person family time (visitation) for all youth in care; these blanket suspensions failed to take into account individual family circumstances, contravened federal guidance, and isolated youth from their families – and virtual visitation did not serve as a meaningful substitute for all youth, particularly when taking into account age, developmental needs, and access to technology.During COVID‐19, families and youth in the dependency system experienced restricted and limited access to daily living needs (food, shelter, education), technology, reunification services and resources for transition‐aged youth, and the courts and attorneys.Because quality family time supports attachment and expedites permanency, parent/child relationships may be long impacted by COVID‐19 restrictions, well after the immediate crisis ends.Attorneys have an important role to play in ensuring that meaningful, quality family time resumes and that disrupted attachments are repaired through increased contact and/or targeted therapeutic services.Closed courts, cancelled services, and suspended visitation may lead to delays in achieving permanency for youth in the child welfare system during COVID‐19.Attorneys should ensure the court has before it a full record of what was supposed to happen and use the reasonable efforts requirement to hold agencies accountable for what did or did not occur during the pandemic (and why) – including services, family time, placement changes, and case plan compliance.The child welfare system can mitigate the worst impacts of COVID‐19, and begin to become the kind of system that families need and deserve, by focusing on and emphasizing high‐quality legal representation, creativity in advocacy and policy design, and meaningful youth and family engagement – all best practices that shone through even during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article defines trauma and how it manifests in the dependency court system. Trauma is prevalent in child welfare cases and all of the professionals on these cases can respond to the trauma they see and experience more effectively through a better understanding of how to regulate the nervous system and the body. Trauma often manifests as difficult behaviors in the dependency court world, but there is a lack of information for effective strategies to deal with it. This article discusses how families and professionals experience trauma in dependency court and provides tools rooted in a physiological understanding of trauma. It will help professionals notice and respond to trauma in themselves and others. Key Points for the Family Court Community:There are many ways to define trauma, and using a broader definition of trauma helps put people's actions into context.The discussion about the implications of trauma on family court parties and professionals helps inform every family law decision.Trauma manifests in recognizable ways, and learning to recognize trauma manifestations can help professionals interact with clients and each other better.Learning the skills to respond to trauma manifestations is important for family law professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges ("NCJFCJ") provides training and technical assistance to juvenile and family courts across the country. Since 1995, the NCJFCJ has worked to improve the lives of children and families in child abuse and neglect cases with the Model Courts and Implementation Sites projects using the Enhanced Resource Guidelines as a foundation. This article describes the history and evolution of the Enhanced Resource Guidelines, identifies key principles and practices implemented by demonstration sites, shares lessons learned from judges leading reform efforts, and highlights preliminary results from research and evaluation efforts. Research has indicated that implementation of the Enhanced Resource Guidelines is associated with increased judicial continuity throughout the case, increased engagement of families during hearings, decreased time to permanency, and fewer out of home placements for children. Judicial leaders can make improvements on and off the bench by improving the quality of their hearings and practice as recommended in the Enhanced Resource Guidelines. Key Points for the Family Court Community: The Enhanced Resource Guidelines include Key Principles and other best practices to improve the handling of child abuse and neglect hearings and improve outcomes for children and families.The Enhanced Resource Guidelines and the original Resource Guidelines have been implemented in juvenile and family courts across the country for decades and judges share lessons learned from their implementation efforts.Preliminary research suggests implementing the Enhanced Resource Guidelines can improve case processing time, increase engagement of children and families during hearings and other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic has thrust the world into a crisis – and the child welfare system is particularly susceptible to its effects. This pandemic has exacerbated some of the most problematic aspects of the system, and its impacts will reverberate long after the immediate crisis ends. As COVID‐19 spread, families were instantly impacted – in‐person family time was cancelled, youth and families were unable to access basic resources, services, and technology, and access to the courts was curtailed. Those short‐term effects may give way to long‐term harms such as disrupted attachments and delays in achieving permanency. The pandemic also reinforced the importance of key tenets of a well‐functioning child welfare system: high‐quality legal representation, creativity, and youth and family engagement. Attorneys must learn from the fallout of the pandemic, retain the best responsive practices, and use the lessons learned from this crisis to transform dependency cases, and the system writ large, into what families need and deserve. Key Points for the Family Court Community: Many child welfare agencies and courts' first response to COVID‐19 was to suspend in‐person family time (visitation) for all youth in care; these blanket suspensions failed to take into account individual family circumstances, contravened federal guidance, and isolated youth from their families – and virtual visitation did not serve as a meaningful substitute for all youth, particularly when taking into account age, developmental needs, and access to technology.During COVID‐19, families and youth in the dependency system experienced restricted and limited access to daily living needs (food, shelter, education), technology, reunification services and resources for transition‐aged youth, and the courts and attorneys.Because quality family time supports attachment and expedites permanency, parent/child relationships may be long impacted by COVID‐19 restrictions, well after the immediate crisis ends.Attorneys have an important role to play in ensuring that meaningful, quality family time resumes and that disrupted attachments are repaired through increased contact and/or targeted therapeutic services.Closed courts, cancelled services, and suspended visitation may lead to delays in achieving permanency for youth in the child welfare system during COVID‐19.Attorneys should ensure the court has before it a full record of what was supposed to happen and use the reasonable efforts requirement to hold agencies accountable for what did or did not occur during the pandemic (and why) – including services, family time, placement changes, and case plan compliance.The child welfare system can mitigate the worst impacts of COVID‐19, and begin to become the kind of system that families need and deserve, by focusing on and emphasizing high‐quality legal representation, creativity in advocacy and policy design, and meaningful youth and family engagement – all best practices that shone through even during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The one family, one judge model is a recommended 'best practice' adopted in jurisdictions across the country. This article reports findings from a survey of professional stakeholders ( N = 165) in Baltimore regarding their perception of a recently implemented one family, one judge model in their jurisdiction. Perceptions of the one family, one judge practice are mostly positive; stakeholders believe that it improves the fairness and consistency of decision-making. Stakeholder concerns focused on implementation, scheduling, and familiarity among parties. Based on our findings, we highlight the importance of ongoing efforts to reduce potential bias, to improve scheduling practices, and to increase inter- and intra-agency coordination and communication to ensure that the one family, one judge model lives up to its promise while mitigating potential concerns. Key Points for the Family Court Community Most stakeholders are satisfied with the one family, one judge docketing as implemented in Baltimore City and believe that it has improved efficiency and decision-making., In planning and implementing one family, one judge docketing, jurisdictions must take into account logistical considerations that can impact the program feasibility, acceptance, and success. These include fiscal resources, local regulations, staffing, and workplace structures., Communication and good relationships among stakeholders and agencies can help facilitate implementation of model court practices such as one family, one judge docketing., Stakeholders voiced mixed concerns regarding the fairness of one family, one judge. Some stakeholders believed that the one family, one judge model potentially or actually exacerbated judicial bias; whereas others believed that the model reduced judicial bias. Understanding these concerns is important in directing future research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the child welfare system, going to jail does not automatically mean losing your children. As the number of incarcerated parents rises, California dependency bench officers are looking at the effects incarceration has on parents seeking to reunify with their children. The California legislature passed legislation allowing a dependency judicial officer to consider the effect incarceration has on parents' performance and to grant additional reunification if a parent's progress is hindered by incarceration. In Los Angeles County, the Incarcerated Parents Working Group was specifically created in 2009 to look at the services available to incarcerated parents and what barriers these parents face in their efforts to reunify. Additionally, the working group has created judicial training on this subject for their bench officers and for other judicial officers throughout the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article begins with a discussion about the importance of ensuring that all children have lawyers in abuse and neglect cases. Lawyers provide a vital role in giving youth a voice in proceedings that sound profoundly affect their lives. The article then discusses why the client-directed lawyer's role is consistent with federal law and legal ethics. Finally, the article discusses the growing support for client-directed representation and what the American Bar Association has done to support this type of child representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2008, the Washington State legislature established a pilot program in four designated sites wherein youth ages twelve years and older had the right to (1) receive notice of all dependency hearings that involve them, (2) be present at such hearings, and (3) be heard personally. Pursuant to the legislation, upon request by the youth, the court participating in the pilot program is permitted to conduct an in-chambers interview with the youth to determine his or her wishes regarding issues pending before the court. The legislation further required that the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Department of Social and Health Services collaborate in implementing and assessing the effectiveness of the program. This article details the development of the pilot program, its implementation, and evaluation results as of the date of this publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article begins with a due process analysis concluding that children are legally entitled to counsel and continues by presenting examples of federal and state legislation, court decisions, and public policy arguments that support this right. The article then goes a step further to advocate for a traditional, client-directed model of representation, which empowers children and leads to better judicial decision making. Finally, the article discusses the impact of high caseloads and lack of training on attorney performance. This article serves as an important addition to the academic literature examining the need for and role of the child's attorney in dependency proceedings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After approximately 15 years of research on court-based dependency mediation programs, answers have emerged for many, but not all, of the questions that surround dependency mediation. This article explores what has been learned about court-based dependency mediation through research and what new and persisting questions remain. The article reviews empirical studies of child protection mediation. The topics considered include what we have learned about the organization and structure of mediation programs, what have we learned about settlement in mediation, and whether there are benefits to mediation beyond the mere fact that settlements are reached. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the greatest challenges that parents face in child protection mediation (CPM) is to voice their concerns and negotiate on a relatively equal basis with the other mediation participants. This article considers how imbalances of power, limited confidentiality protection, and the personal problems that bring parents into the child protection process can limit a parent's ability to exercise self-determination in mediation and offers guidance for mediators seeking to conduct CPM in a manner that effectively empowers parents to meaningfully and collaboratively participate in mediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust the world into a crisis - and the child welfare system is particularly susceptible to its effects. This pandemic has exacerbated some of the most problematic aspects of the system, and its impacts will reverberate long after the immediate crisis ends. As COVID-19 spread, families were instantly impacted - in-person family time was cancelled, youth and families were unable to access basic resources, services, and technology, and access to the courts was curtailed. Those short-term effects may give way to long-term harms such as disrupted attachments and delays in achieving permanency. The pandemic also reinforced the importance of key tenets of a well-functioning child welfare system: high-quality legal representation, creativity, and youth and family engagement. Attorneys must learn from the fallout of the pandemic, retain the best responsive practices, and use the lessons learned from this crisis to transform dependency cases, and the system writ large, into what families need and deserve., (© 2020 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.)