Representing Parents in Child Welfare Cases is a guide for attorneys representing parents accused of parental unfitness due to abuse or neglect. Competent legal representation is often the sole support a parent has when working with the child welfare system. This book provides practical tips for attorneys at each stage of the process.

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Trial Advocacy for the Child Welfare Lawyer: Telling the Story of the Family was a first of its kind publication and gave lawyers working in child welfare court their first real trial skills book five years ago. Thousands of lawyers became more proficient at trial work because of that seminal publication. Now, the Juvenile Law Society (JLS) has made it even better with Trial Advocacy for the Child Welfare Lawyer: Telling the Story of the Family, Second Edition, by Marvin Ventrell and Patrick Furman. Trials, effectively presented, are stories—stories of mothers, fathers, children—stories of the family. Trial Advocacy for the Child Welfare Lawyer, Second Edition teaches you how to present the story of the family from the unique and powerful perspective of each litigant. From nuts and bolts to advanced practice techniques, each trial skill is treated as a mechanism of persuasion. For the Second Edition, JLS Founder and Director Marvin Ventrell teamed up with his long-time trial skills training partner and highly regarded teacher and trial lawyer, Patrick Furman as co-author. Ventrell and Furman expand the nine essential trial skills of the first edition and have added a new chapter on The Child Witness. From case analysis to opening statement, to witness exam to evidentiary foundations, to objections, to closing argument and professionalism and ethics, Trial Advocacy for the Child Welfare Lawyer, Second Edition prepares the lawyer for children, parents, and state agencies to go to court. Reviews The Juvenile Law Society [JLS] has made a profound contribution to the field of child welfare law with this succinct and practical book. It really should be required reading for all lawyers appearing in child welfare court. It is an artful blending of the essentials of trial advocacy with the particulars of child welfare court. This book will empower attorneys to provide improved advocacy for children, parents, and agencies . . . and that, in turn, will lead to better judicial outcomes for our most vulnerable children and their families. —Jennifer L. Renne, Esq., Director, Capacity Building Center for Courts, American Bar Association

This volume examines existing research documenting racial disproportionality and disparities in child welfare systems, the underlying factors that contribute to these phenomena and the harms that result at both the individual and community levels. It reviews multiple forms of interventions designed to prevent and reduce disproportionality, particularly in states and jurisdictions that have seen meaningful change. With contributions from authorities and leaders in the field, this volume serves as the authoritative volume on the complex issue of child maltreatment and child welfare. It offers a central source of information for students and practitioners who are seeking understanding on how structural and institutional racism can be addressed in public systems.

"Children's rights": the phrase has been a legal battle cry for twenty-five years. But as this provocative book by a nationally renowned expert on children's legal standing argues, it is neither possible nor desirable to isolate children from the interests of their parents, or those of society as a whole. From foster care to adoption to visitation rights and beyond, Martin Guggenheim offers a trenchant analysis of the most significant debates in the children's rights movement, particularly those that treat children's interests as antagonistic to those of their parents. Guggenheim argues that "children's rights" can serve as a screen for the interests of adults, who may have more to gain than the children for whom they claim to speak. More important, this book suggests that children's interests are not the only ones or the primary ones to which adults should attend, and that a "best interests of the child" standard often fails as a meaningful test for determining how best to decide disputes about children.

“[An] excellent overview of the child welfare system . . . Most importantly, [the author] provides a discussion of how to create true change.” —Tina Lee, author of Catching a Case: Inequality and Fear in New York City's Child Welfare System A groundbreaking look at the history and politics of the American child welfare system, “When the Welfare People Come” exposes the system in its totality, from child protective investigation to foster care and mandated services, arguing that it constitutes a mechanism of control exerted over poor and working class parents and children. Applying the Marxist framework of social reproduction theory to the child welfare system, the author, an attorney who has practiced in the area of child welfare for more than twenty years, reveals the system’s role in the regulation of family life under capitalism. “This book’s description and analysis of child welfare is terrific. Though I’ve worked in the field of child welfare for four decades, I learned not only new information but also found new, resonant analyses.” —David Tobis, PhD, Author of From Pariahs to Partners: How Parents and Their Allies Changed New York City’s Child Welfare System

Each year, child protective services receive reports of child abuse and neglect involving six million children, and many more go unreported. The long-term human and fiscal consequences of child abuse and neglect are not relegated to the victims themselves-they also impact their families, future relationships, and society. In 1993, the National Research Council (NRC) issued the report, Under-standing Child Abuse and Neglect, which provided an overview of the research on child abuse and neglect. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research updates the 1993 report and provides new recommendations to respond to this public health challenge. According to this report, while there has been great progress in child abuse and neglect research, a coordinated, national research infrastructure with high-level federal support needs to be established and implemented immediately. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research recommends an actionable framework to guide and support future child abuse and neglect research. This report calls for a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to child abuse and neglect research that examines factors related to both children and adults across physical, mental, and behavioral health domains-including those in child welfare, economic support, criminal justice, education, and health care systems-and assesses the needs of a variety of subpopulations. It should also clarify the causal pathways related to child abuse and neglect and, more importantly, assess efforts to interrupt these pathways. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research identifies four areas to look to in developing a coordinated research enterprise: a national strategic plan, a national surveillance system, a new generation of researchers, and changes in the federal and state programmatic and policy response.

The first international, cross-disciplinary book to explore and understand the lives of parents with intellectual disabilities, their children, and the systems and services they encounter Presents a unique, pan-disciplinary overview of this growing field of study Offers a human rights approach to disability and family life Informed by the newly adopted UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) Provides comprehensive research-based knowledge from leading figures in the field of intellectual disability