Parental Legal Representation in Child Welfare
Parents involved in child welfare court cases face steep challenges navigating the court process. Few parents have experience in advocacy, knowledge of the rules of family court, or of their rights as parents. Stakeholders including the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Children’s Bureau promote an interdisciplinary team approach to parent representation that includes out-of-court engagement.
Funded by Casey Family Programs and in partnership with the NYU School of Law, Action Research conducted a quasi-experimental study based on over 10,000 court cases to understand the impact of different models of parent representation. The study found that after controlling for many other factors, compared to the traditional appointed counsel model, organizations using an interdisciplinary approach that paired lawyers with social workers and parent advocates reduced foster care stays by an average of four months with no impact on safety outcomes. In tandem with this study, the Children’s Bureau has made Title IV-E funds available to support the expansion of the interdisciplinary model approaches for parent representation. Expansion is taking place in several jurisdictions, including in New Mexico, California, and upstate New York. Many of these efforts are supported by the Family Justice Initiative.
Journal articles:
Effects of an interdisciplinary approach to parental representation in child welfare