Children's Justice: How to Improve Legal Representation of Children in the Child Welfare System

The unusual and complex nature of child welfare in America has significant implications for the child’s legal advocate. The U.S. Children’s Bureau identified inadequate representation of children as a chief obstacle to achieving a well-functioning child welfare system. Despite a widespread conviction that children ought to be independently represented in child abuse and neglect court proceedings, there are still questions surrounding who is best suited to represent the child, the duties and responsibilities of the child advocate and how best to maximize the organization and delivery of child welfare services. This...guide shares findings from the National Quality Improvement Center on the Representation of Children in the Child Welfare System (QIC-ChildRep), a project of the University of Michigan Law School supported by the U.S. Children’s Bureau. Lawyers trained in the six core skills of the QIC best practice model improved process and outcomes for children. The book identifies: rationale for the QIC best practice model and the six core skills; specifics of the training in the six core skills; lawyer voices as they implemented the new approach; improved child outcomes based on random assignment experimental design; profile of lawyers representing children, their major activities, and the impact; empirical support for social worker/lawyer teams representing children in child welfare cases; and recommendations for the future of child representation based on the QIC experience.\nContents:
Challenge : improve child representation in America --
Evolution of child representation --
National needs assessment --
Emerging consensus and the QIC best practice model --
Six core skills and the QIC best practice training --
What the lawyers say about implementing the six core skills --
Sample selection and research methods / Britany Orlebeke, Andrew Zinn, Xiaomeng Zhou, Ada Skyles --
Profile of lawyers representing children / Britany Orlebeke, Andrew Zinn --
Lawyer activities and their impact / Andrew Zinn and Britany Orlebeke --
Findings of the evaluation of the QIC-ChildRep best practices model training for attorneys / Britany Orlebeke, Xiaomeng Zhou, Ada Skyles and Andrew Zinn --
Reflections on QIC empirical findings --
The Flint MDT study: a description and evaluation of a multidisciplinary team representing children in child welfare cases / Robbin Pott --
How to improve legal representation of children in America's child welfare system.