Determining the Best Interests of the Child

Child Welfare Information Gateway

Whenever a court must make a determination as to the custody and/or placement of a child, or must decide on a petition for termination of parental rights, the court must weigh whether that decision will be in the best interests of the child. All States and Territories require that the child’s best interests be considered whenever such decisions regarding a child’s placement are made. This State Statutes publication provides the factors that may be considered by the court when making a best interests determination.

Best Practices in Dependency:Planned, Purposeful, and Progressive Visitation

Court Improvement Training Academy

Rose Wentz, Consultant for the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice and Permanency Planning, discusses how to have safe and successful visits. Rose covers the definition of visits per federal law and best practice standards as well as the connections a child needs while in care. With audience interaction she reviews a four-step decision making process for developing a visit plan to meet a child’s needs and enable parents to improve parenting skills. She also looks at how to develop a visit plan that will meet the goal of allowing children to have a safe visit in the most natural and home-like situation.

Sharing Data Between the Court and Child Welfare Systems

Progress toward developing effective data sharing between the courts and child welfare agencies and the benefits of data sharing are explored in a report released by the New York State Unified Court System, Division of Court Operations. In the report, Building Bridges: The Case for Data Sharing Between the Court and Child Welfare Systems, authors Paul Drezelo and Amelia Lepore discuss the need for interagency collaboration in the development of information systems that can communicate directly with one another.

Kentucky’s family courts worry open government advocates – www.thenewsenterprise.com

Kentuckians can feel confident their government is operating with a relatively high degree of transparency and openness, except for “serious problems” in the family court system, which includes juvenile proceedings.

Montclair State University – The Center for Child Advocacy Offers New Major

The Center for Child Advocacy Offers New Major
Bachelor of Arts in Child Advocacy

The Center for Child Advocacy is proud to offer the Bachelor of Arts in Child Advocacy.

The Bachelor of Arts in Child Advocacy will offer students an applied course of study in child advocacy.

• A multi-disciplinary view of the field of child advocacy through course work taught through the lens of psychology, social work and law.
• The opportunity for students to pursue bachelor level, entry level positions in public child welfare, child mental health, and educational advocacy, among others.
• The requisite knowledge and outlook in child advocacy to help students as they pursue master’s and doctoral programs in preparation for other careers as well as the high demand field of child advocacy.

Montclair State University – Center for Child Advocacy

The Center for Child Advocacy (CHAD) is proud to present its exemplary programs:

Undergraduate Certificate in Child Advocacy
Bachelor of Arts in Child Advocacy,
Post-BA Certificate in Child Advocacy (Now also offered ONLINE)
Master of Arts with an optional Concentration in Public Child Welfare

Extend protection from abuse to all children | Delawareonline.com | The News Journal

Courts, lawyers, even cash settlements can do little to ease the trauma of child sexual abuse. But for mistakes of the past, the legal system represents society’s best means of helping victims of childhood abuse obtain some semblance of justice.