Moving Child Welfare Forward
Achieving Positive Outcomes for Children, Youth and Families

Class Five: Court and Agency Perspectives on Child Protection

Topics

• Roles, responsibilities, processes
• Child Welfare Agency
• Juvenile Court
• Truancy Court
• Drug Court
• Using the Courts to enforce and or create policy

Learning Objectives

When this class is complete the student should be able to:

• Explain the required and perceived roles and responsibilities of the court in the child protection system and how courts are involved in achieving successful outcomes for children and families
• Define what the courts and child protective agencies identify as their main opportunities, challenges and needs as they carry out their required activities in child welfare cases
• Employ strategies for building positive working relationships between the child welfare agency and the court.

Suggested Assignments

• Read and be prepared to discuss in class the Child Welfare Services in El Paso County, Colorado: Where Human Services and the CourtsMeet case. (Source: Collaboration with the Courts , developed as part of a project funded by the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Section 426 of the Social Security Act, published July 2004. Available on the internet at: www.muskie.usm.maine.edu/asfa)
• Student paper, 2 double spaced pages: Students will be asked to select one children’s/parent’s rights issue (placement with kin, termination of parental rights, making information on biological parents available to adopted children) and describe the practice implications for the child welfare worker.

Suggested In-class Activities

• Guest Speakers: Agency representative and lawyer or judge to discuss what the courts and child protective agencies identify as their vision, role, and responsibilities in the child protection system.
• Small group discussion: Students will be asked to analyze the effectiveness of the Wilder class action lawsuit from the perspective of using the legal system to as a method of bringing about reform. Read this quote from The Lost Children of Wilder, p 80. ‘There were others who saw themselves as Lowry’s collaborators. To many in a younger generation of social workers and parent activists shaped by the civil rights movement, Wilder was an electrifying link between their every day struggles and a broader push for systemic reform’. Ask students to divide in to two groups, those that agree and those that disagree with the statement that Wilder served as an impetus for reforming the NYC child welfare service delivery system. Ask each group to spend 30 minutes discussing why the members agree/disagree then report back major discussion points to the whole class.
• Debate the pro’s and con’s of establishing separate Truancy and Drug Courts.
• Case Discussion: Child Welfare Services in El Paso County , Colorado : Where Human Services and the Courts Meet. (2003) Cambridge , MA : Harvard University , Kennedy School of Government , C16-03-1702.0.

Suggested Readings

• Bernstein, Nina. (2001). The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care. New York : Random House. Part five and postscript.
• Crosson-Tower, Cynthia. (2002). Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect. 5 th Ed. Chapter 2: The Family: Roles, Responsibilities and Rights. Boston , MA : Allyn and Bacon, pp. 21-41. Defines ‘family’ and includes a discussion on minority family systems.
• Center for the Future of Children. (Winter 1996). The Future of Children: The Juvenile Court. Los Angeles : CA: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Vol. 6, No.3.
• Rubin, H. Ted. The Nature of the Court Today, pp. 40-52. This article presents a description of the influences shaping the role, activities and jurisdictions of Juvenile Courts.
• Hardin, Mark. Responsibilities and Effectiveness of the Juvenile Court in Handling Dependency Cases, pp.111-125. This article describes the expanding role of the Juvenile Court in child protection cases.

Supplemental Reference Material

On-Line Resources

• www.clasp.org The website of the Center for Law and Social Policy, an organization that focuses on family policy and access to civil legal assistance for low-income families.
• www.ncjfcj.org The website of the National Council on Juvenile and Family Court Judges, an organization that works to improve the courts of juvenile and family jurisdictions.
• www.childrensrights.org The website of the Children’s Rights which concentrates on promoting and protecting the rights of abused and neglected children in foster care systems.
• www.childrensdefense.org The website of the Children’s Defense Fund, a private, nonprofit organization that provides information and education about the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities.

Introduction

Objectives

Class 1 Content

Class 2 Content

Class 3 Content

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Class 5 Content

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Class 9 Content