National Child Welfare Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues

Who We Are

The National Child Welfare Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues (RCLJI) provides expertise to State and Tribal agencies and courts on legal and judicial aspects of child welfare. The Resource Center is dedicated to achieving safety, permanence and well-being for abused and neglected children through improved laws and judicial decision-making. Areas of focus include: permanency decision-making, adherence to ASFA and other federal laws, the court's role in the CFSR and child welfare reform, high quality legal representation for all parties, judicial and attorney workloads, quality assurance for courts and legal offices, effective forensic performance by agencies, the impact of ASFA on youth in the juvenile justice system, education needs of children in foster care, legal ethics, and the interplay of domestic violence and child welfare.

How We Can Help

RCLJI offers States the following assistance with their Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSR):

Collecting and Analyzing Data
RCLJI can help coordinate focus groups as a method of collecting data from judges, lawyers, and other stakeholders for the CFSR. Staff can also help analyze data the State is collecting to determine how effectively the courts are achieving safety, permanence, and well-being for children.

Legal and Judicial Issue Analysis
RCLJI staff can help by reviewing CFSR Statewide Assessments, final reports, and Program Improvement Plans (PIPs); identifying legal barriers to best practice; and recommending strategies to overcome barriers. RCLJI can also meet with the agency and/or court to help pinpoint underlying factors of legal system issues.

Promoting Stakeholder Involvement
The courts need to feel they are part of the child welfare system, and the agency needs to be able to approach and work with the courts. RCLJI can assist in making these connections and fostering a team attitude. Staff can help States identify and engage all the most appropriate legal system participants-including representatives of the Court Improvement Project-and help ensure they will stay involved throughout the process, from Statewide Assessment through implementation of the PIP.

Action Planning
In coordination with the National Resource Center on Organizational Improvement, RCLJI staff can meet with the agency and/or court to help develop specific, realistic strategies to address issues identified in the final report, such as case planning and quality assurance. This can happen before or after the creation of the PIP.

PIP Implementation
The Resource Center offers training and technical assistance tailored to your needs as determined by the PIP. Examples include:

Improving legal representation of the agency and other parties.
Improving the timeliness of judicial decision-making.
Developing judicial performance measurement and quality assurance.
ASFA nuts and bolts implementation for judges.
Analysis of State statutes and court rules.
Analysis of judicial and attorney workloads with strategies for improvement.

Other Training and Technical Assistance
The Center has new workshops that may be helpful to States and Tribes in the CFSR process, including:

Best Practices to Implement ASFA: Creative Strategies for Permanence.
Making it Permanent: Efforts to Finalize Permanency Plans for Children in Foster Care.
Meeting Educational Needs of Children in Foster Care.

For More Information

Address:	740 15 th Street, NW Washington, DC 20005-1019
Phone:	(800) 285-2221
Fax:	(202) 662-1755
E-Mail:	mark.hardin@staff.abanet.org
Web site:	http://www.abanet.org/child/rclji
Contact:	Mark Hardin, Director Mimi Laver, Assistant Director Jennifer Renne for TA requests (202) 662-1731 rennej@staff.abanet.org

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